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Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone

Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
70
DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
in Elboganus near the little town of Satelus. It is found near a town whose name is derived from that of a variety of hawk which we call falcon, along the road to Culma at a very high place which is called "The Burning Hill" because it burned once. The same is dug up at Samnius, Italy, according to Xenocrates; near Liguria, according to Theophrastus; in Thesprotia; and in Elis, along the road over Mt. Olympus.
When polished we give coal a new name and call it jet (gagates). Not all coal can be polished, only the hardest, and not all jet is coal since some is bitumen. This same name is given to black bitumen that has been in­durated in the sea and thrown up on the shore near the Vistula river in a manner similar to amber but in much smaller quantities. According to Pliny it is thrown up by the sea in Leucola where it is collected over an area a mile and a half long. It is found along the Pontus river in Thrace and hence called Thracian stone by Nicander and Dioscorides (lapis thracius). Samothracian gem (samothracia), so-called by Pliny, is found on the island of Samothrace. The material found in Lycia near the town of Gagas was called gagates by Dioscorides and the material from Meso­potamia was called gangitis by Strabo. According to Galen gangitis is found around an asphalt lake in Judea and at Seleucia Pieria, the most prominent town of Syria. Strabo and Dioscorides called the material from the latter locality ampelitis earth. We know from the writings of Galen that some of it was hard and thus similar to hard coal and rough jet and some soft and similar to soft coal. This same hard bitumen is found in India and Ethiopia according to Xenocrates and Pliny has called these materials lapis obsidianus. This is enough concerning the places where this mineral is found.
I shall now consider the uses and these are many. Copper and iron workers sometimes use it in the place of charcoal but it will corrupt iron and make it brittle and for this reason those who do fine iron work do not use it. They use only iron obtained with charcoal except when it is not available. When wood is not available people use this bitumen to cook food, to heat their homes in winter and to burn lime. Farmers put it on vines because it blinds and kills worms and rodents. It is used to dye the eyelids and hair various pleasing shades. In medicine it is used to dry and dispel. The hard, polished varieties are carved into statues of people, into round balls used in calculating prices and into gems to be placed in rings or to be used as a base.9
We shall now consider the mineral called succinum (amber), what it is, where it occurs, localities where it is mined and where it is cast up on beaches, and finally its distinguishing qualities. To begin with, the Romans correctly called it succinum since it is a congealed juice although not the juice of a tree as they thought. The Greeks called it ήλίκτρον
9 Although jet has been used as the backing material in doublets, Agricola un­doubtedly refers here to obsidian and chalcedony which have enjoyed a much wider use in doublets because of their superior physical properties.
Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone
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