Page 63 - Handbook of Gold Exploration and Evaluation

44 Handbook of gold exploration and evaluation

centrates. Amalgamation was certainly well known to the Romans. Theo-
phrastus recorded the amalgamation of gold and mercury about 300 BC and
Vitruvius described the use of mercury for recovering gold from gold-threaded
cloth in 27 BC.
Alchemists around AD 300 defined chemistry (chemia, from the Greek Vgeia)
as the art of transmuting base metals such as lead and copper into gold and silver.
This process of transmutation involved using a hypothetical substance called the
`philosopher's stone', which was also supposed to be a universal solvent and a
source of everlasting life. The Roman Empire rose, financed by gold, and fell amid
political turmoil when the excesses of the ruling classes depleted defence coffers
and destroyed its ability to survive. This resulted in a stifling of enterprise and
learning in the Western World.

1.2.4 Dark Ages in Europe and the Eastern World

The fall of the Roman Empire in 476 saw the virtual end of scientific activity in
Europe. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian closed great centres of learning such
as the Academy and Lyceum in Athens in 529 and destroyed the Museum of
Alexandria in 641. The `Dark Ages', which followed and continued until the
12th century is believed by some historians to have been pre-empted by the
catastrophic events which followed major volcanic eruptions around what is
now known as `The Pacific Ring of Fire'. Eruptions of Mt Vesuvius saw the
destruction of Pompeii and the burial of Herculaneum, at the base of Vesuvius in
70 AD. As recorded by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger, Pliny was overcome
by the fumes and died at the town of Stabiae when he tried to rescue a friend.
Historians refer to similar geological and chronological records including the
eruption of Mt Ilopango in Central America (260 AD), which is believed to have
driven the ancient Maya Civilisation hundreds of kilometres away from their
settlements, disrupting their characteristic culture for 200 years. The Mayan
civilisation developed from its heartland on the Vera Cruz coastline of Mexico
around 2000 BC with notable religious centres at San Lorenzo and La Ventes.
Recent archaeological investigations suggest that the complete destruction of the
Mayan Empire followed an ensuing catastrophic period of drought.

South East Asia and China
Written evidence of ancient scientific development in the Far East is sparse in
the Western World. Recent discoveries in parts of South East Asia and China
suggest that around 2400 BC the Chinese invented a method for taking observa-
tions of the sky based upon the Earth's equator and poles, a system not adopted
and established in the Western World until the 16th century AD. Transition from
the Stone Age to the Age of Metals also took place independently of the West at
least 3,000 years BC. These discoveries show that certain aspects of physical