Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
77
CE
, Rome imported 4-5 metric tons of mercury annually
from the mines in Spain, which was used for gold amalga-
mation (D'Itri and D'Itri, 1977).
As early as 600
BCE
, cinnabar was used by the Greeks as
a pigment to color statues (Healy, 1978). Powdered cinna-
bar was used to paint Roman villas and also as a cosmetic.
Researchers found that cinnabar was one of the mineral
pigments used on the frescoes that were later buried by
ash from volcanic eruptions at Pompeii (Lorenzi, 2004).
Roman criminals and slaves were sent to work at fi resetting
(an ancient mining practice in which wood was burned at
the face of the ore zone and water was poured on the face,
causing the rock to crack and spall) in the Spanish mer-
cury mines (D'Itri, and D'Itri, 1977); they subsequently
died from inhaling the toxic mercury fumes released by
the process.
In the Middle East, according to the 11th century scien-
tist Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, author of texts on mineralogy,
gems, and metals, gold was processed from the ore by crush-
ing, then the ore was washed and mercury was added. Gold
was also recovered from the Sind River by leaving mercury
in small pits dug in the bedrock in the stream. The gold-
bearing sediment would wash over the puddles of mercury
and the gold would amalgamate with the mercury. In both
examples, the gold-bearing amalgam was then recovered
and squeezed through leather to separate the gold from
the mercury and recover some of the mercury. Then, as a
fi nal step, the amalgam was burned in order to volatilize
the mercury and purify the gold (al-Hassan and Hill, 1986).
The amalgamation process for small-scale mining of
quartz veins was introduced to West Africa in the 12th cen-
tury and the amalgam was similarly burned to recover the
gold (Blanchard, 2006).
related to Pacal, in a nearby tomb and known as the “Red
Queen” were covered in powdered cinnabar (Hawkes and
Hammond, 1997; Miller, 2001). Cinnabar was one of several
pigments used to decorate incense burners used for funeral
rituals at Palenque (Vazquez and Velazquez, 1996). A
photograph available on the Internet shows the cinnabar-
covered remains of a Mayan woman at Copan, Honduras
(250 -900
CE
) (Garrett, 2007).
In Central America, mercury occurrences are known
in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, but the only
occurrences for which production has been reported are in
Honduras (Roberts and Irving, 1957). Of these, only the La
Cañada Mine, Departamento Tegucigalpa, Honduras, was
worked during the Spanish Colonial period. The cinnabar
occurrences in Central America were known and exploited
from early prehistory as sources of the intense red pigment
that was used for painting ceramics and other artifacts
(Karen Bruhns, Ph.D., professor, San Francisco State
University, written communication, October 9, 2007).
In the mud in Lake Amatitlan, Guatemala, marine
archaeologists found two containers with mercury that
date to the Early Classic Period (300-600
CE
) (Mata Amado,
2002). Jade and shell fragments were found fl oating on a
tiny, approximately 130-g pool of mercury in a closed
container in a Mayan tomb that dates to 900-1000
CE
in
Belize (Pendergast, 1982).
There are a number of gold, silver, or lead-zinc occur-
rences in Central America and South America that, geo-
logically, may have had minor mercury or cinnabar in the
upper parts of the mineral deposits. For example, bedrock
occurrences of cinnabar were exploited in the 1900s and
later, in the 1950s, at Witlage Creek in eastern Suriname
(Capps et al., 2004).
Approximately 20 mercury occurrences are known
in Peru (Petersen, 1970); however, the occurrences in
Huancavelica are the most well-known (Yates et al., 1951;
McKee et al., 1986) and the most likely source of mercury
and cinnabar used in ancient Peru. There are also cinnabar
occurrences near Azoguines and Cuenca, Ecuador, which
are not as well known as those at Huancavelica, that were
also exploited (Truhan et al., 2005).
Archaeological studies (e.g., Petersen, 1970; West, 1994)
indicate that ancient Peruvians exploited placer gold; how-
ever, the use of mercury for amalgamation and recovery of
the gold is rarely discussed or is considered to have been
a European technological import. However, the volume of
gold artifacts provided by Atahualpa, the Inca king, for his
release from the Spanish in 1532 is hard evidence of the
volume of gold in Peru as well as the advanced small-scale
mining technology used by the ancient Andeans. Larco
Hoyle (2001) indicates that mercury was used by the Moche
(100
BCE
-750
CE
), in northern Peru, to amalgamate placer
gold. The mercury was cleaned and recycled by squeezing
the gold-bearing amalgam through a scrap of leather, and
the recovered mercury was reused. This process is similar
to the method described by al-Biruni (al-Hassan and Hill,
The New World
There are mercury occurrences in Guerrero, Queretaro, San
Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas, Mexico. However, in the late
1500s, mercury from Peru was brought to Mexico for silver
processing. Spain prohibited the exploitation of mercury in
Mexico from 1680 to 1811; therefore, records of mercury
mining in Mexico were inconsistent (Consejo de Recursos
Minerales, 1992; Acosta y Asociados, 2001).
Underground mining of cinnabar dates to the 1000
BCE
in Queretaro, and it was used for rituals and celebrations
(Langenscheidt, 1986; Consejo de Recursos Minerales,
1992). Archaeological evidence indicates that cinnabar
was also mined at Guadalcázar, in central San Luis Potosí
(Wittich, 1922; Zaragoza, 1993). In south-central Mexico,
cinnabar was used as a pigment by the Olmec to decorate
fi gures during the Pre-Classic (1200 to 400
BCE
) (Martín del
Campo, 2005).
At the Temple of Inscriptions, Palenque, Mexico, the
sarcophagus of the Maya king Pacal, who died in 683
CE
,
was painted with cinnabar as a toxic warning to looters.
The body of Pacal and the body of a woman, perhaps
