Silver occurs rarely in pure form, and most of it has to be extracted from ores, usually from lead ores by a process called cupellation, which was in use in Anatolia and the Near East by the fourth millennium BCE. The date given here marks the approximate start of its use, and exact dating of the earliest silver objects remains uncertain. In the ancient world silver served as ornament, as a measure of value and later as coinage, and the Athenian silver mines at Laurion financed the fleet that defeated Persia at Salamis. The Romans mined it in Spain, and after 1545 the enormous deposits at Potosi in present-day Bolivia supplied the Spanish Empire and shaped the global economy. Silver is still used in jewelry, photography, electronics and medicine.
Before and after
- from 56th century BCE to 35th century BCEUbaid period
- from 56th century BCE to 20th century BCESumer
- from 55th century BCE to 27th century BCECucuteni–Trypillia culture
- from 55th century BCE to 45th century BCEVinča culture
- 6th millennium BCEDiscovery of silver
- 6th millennium BCEOrigins of Indian religions
- 6th millennium BCEDiscovery of iron
- c. 5,001 BCECopper is smelted in the Balkans
- c. 4,750 BCEEruption of Hudson, Cerro
More in Science & technology
- 1766Discovery of hydrogen
- 1771Discovery of oxygen
- 1789Discovery of carbon
- 18 August 1868Discovery of helium
- 1931Big Bang theory proposed
- 15 January 2001Wikipedia
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.