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The Romans mined cinnabar ores for mercury near the Gulf of Trieste in the northern Adriatic Sea and in Almaden, Spain (the largest mercury mine in the world), some 140 miles southwest of Madrid. Several of the these mines are still in use today, 2500 years later. Ancient alchemists believed that all matter was composed of three primary "essentials" -- sulfur, salt and spirit (mercury) -- the *tria prima* . Mercury (spirit) was also associated with Sagittarius, Virgo, Gemini, and Pisces. In Roman mythology, Mercury (the Greek Hermes ) was the god of commerce and travel -- as well as the patron of thieves, gamblers, and ambassadors. The Romans considered Mercury rather crafty and deceptive, a trickster. Mines the Romans operated in Spain are still working, more than 2,000 years later.	trick...or treat? Cinnabar has an interesting and wide-ranging history. Theophrastus (372 BC - 288 BC), Greek botanist, humorist, and naturalist, mentions the use of cinnabar, the natural occurring form of vermillion, in Greece as early as sixth century BC, but early Chinese objects show traces as far back as the second millenium BC. victorian cameo brooch of mercury, messenger of the gods Although mercury, also known as "quicksilver" (a reference to its mobility) was once thought to be a mysterious substance, many of the ancients also knew it to be toxic. According to Rome�s famous engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (90-20 BC), miners of cinnabar ore quickly became associated with its poisonous effects -- tremors, extreme mood changes, and eventually loss of hearing and restricted vision -- progressing to severe mental derangement and death. Mining cinnabar ore in Spain and Slovenia for the vermillion pigment they made from it, the Romans -- apparently absent any moral qualms -- solved the toxicity problem by turning their mercury mines into penal institutions for criminals, slaves, and other undesirables. Sparing the state the need for formal executions, the average length of time these poor wretches spent in the mines before death was three years. (Even worse duty was roasting the cinnabor ore to produce mercury itself -- those employed in the furnaces could expect to live about six months.)
One of the most comprehensive treatises of statecraft and the science of living from classical times, the *Arthashastra* , a Sanskrit work written near the end of the fourth century BC, appears to have been rediscovered only in 1905, after centuries of oblivion. The work, has been compared to Machiavelli's The Prince because of its sometimes ruthless approach to practical politics. In Vedic astrology, the father of the planet Mercury (the *Hindu Budha)* is *Soma* , the moon. His mother is *Tara* , an astral goddess, the pole star. ( Similar to the antics of the Greek gods, even though *Tara* was married to Brihaspati , the lord of prayer, **Soma abducted Tara , impregnating her.) Mercury was given his name by Lord Brahma because of his intelligence. He is "proficient in all the scriptures and is as radiant as the moon." The Sanskrit word for "alchemy" is rassayana which means "knowledge of mercury" or "the way of mercury."**	treasure and transmutation In ancient India, cinnabar or vermillion -- that is, mercuric sulphide -- had great ritual significance, typically having been used to make the red bindi or dot on the forehead usually associated with Hinduism. But beyond that, the mineral was associated with two of mankind's greatest desires: to get rich and to live forever. Some of the earliest literary references to the use of mercury distillation comes from Indian treatises such as the Arthashastra -- meaning the "Science of Material Gain" or "Science of Polity." Written by Kautilya -- also known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta -- Hindu statesman, scholar and prime minister of India's first great emperor, Chandragupta Maurya (322-298 BC) -- whom the Greeks knew as Sandracottus -- it gives detailed descriptions and instructions on a variety of subjects including geology and mineralogy. the vedic god mercury But it was not until the medieval period, between the ninth and fourteenth centuries AD that the practice of alchemy really began to flourish in India. And at the heart of many alchemical transmutation experiments in Indian alchemical texts -- precursors to the development of modern chemistry -- was mercury. However, while alchemists in Europe and the Middle East sought primarily to develop processes that would transform base metals into gold, the most important objectives of Indian alchemists, like their Chinese Taoist counterparts, tended more towards the pursuit of bodily perfection -- purifying the body and rejuvenating it -- and discovering the "elixir of immortality" that would take the physical body to an "imperishable and immortal state."
Red rocks had artistic as well as metaphysical significance in ancient China from early on: the parallel between human blood veins and the mineral veins that run through the earth was an indication that man is connected to nature. Wealthy Chinese patrons too lazy to practice meditation or breath control ("guiding the breath") thought they could pay for immortality. Ingesting pills of cinnabar, lead, mercury and other poisonous substances, many died from the poisonous affects. In ancient Chinese tombs, cinnabar was successfully used by the ingenious Chinese as a preservative to keep fine silks intact.	perfection for the pure Chinese Taoist alchemists learned early how to extract mercury from cinnabar. When they weren't trying to immortalize themselves, they were trying to transmute cinnabar into gold. chinese alchemist, kou hung photo: dartmough college Fourth century AD Chinese alchemist, Kou Hung, believed that man is what he eats, and so by ingesting purified compounds, like jade, and metals -- in particular, gold -- he could attain perfection or immortality (ch'ang sheng pu ssu) if he was pure in heart. But Kou faced a dilemma: the "pure in heart" were generally also the "poor in pocket" -- how then to achieve this state of perfection? In true alchemist tradition, Kou, who spent his life trying to discover the magic formula for the "Golden Immortal Medicine" -- believed that with the right recipe and technique it was possible to transform cinnabar into gold. Although he never achieved his ultimate dream, Kou's work was not in vain. His other uses for cinnabar included smearing it on the feet to enable a person to walk on water, placing it over a doorway to ward off thieves, and combining it with raspberry juice to enable elderly men to beget children.
Disguising procedures in his books by mixing up the formulas and words here and there, it is due to Jabir's jumbling of words that we have the word "gibberish." Jabir is also responsible for the word "elixir" -- an Arabic compound word, " *al-iksir* ," meaning "the dry powder." Born in 721 AD, Jabir spent nearly all his life in Kufa, Iraq. Known as "The Father of Chemistry," the word "chemistry," is from the *Arabic "a! Kimiya."* Beginning alchemists when trying to make gold would usually start off with mercury (Hg) -- which is, in a strange coincidence, right next to gold (Au) in the Periodic table. The majority of alchemists' work was heating, liquifying, vaporizing and disintegrating various (usually toxic) substances such as lead, mercury and sulfur. During the time the Moors dominated Spain, 711-1492 AD, the mining of cinnabar ore in Almaden continued. Much of the mercury it yielded was used in medicines and alchemical experiments. After the Moors left, many universities in Christian Spain, including those in Seville, Cordova and Granada continued to offer alchemy as part of their curriculum. According to the noted science writer Philip Ball: "...chemist Robert Boyle [1627-1691, noted for 'Boyle's Law']... shortly before his death, found a way to produce what he believed was a rudimentary form of the [philosopher's] stone; this �red earth� probably contained mercury...Newton obtained some of Boyle's mysterious red powder and experimented on it. Shortly afterward, Newton had some kind of mental breakdown. His sickness may have been caused by mercury poisoning: high levels of this toxic metal were found in preserved samples of Newton's hair." In fact, in 1979, when hair strands from Newton's corpse were tested for mercury, they were found to contain 75 parts per million -- normal levels are about 5 parts per million.	the elusive elixir vitae Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan (d. 803) -- sometimes called al-Harrani or al-Sufi -- but known to the Western world by his Latinized name, Geber (pronounced "je'-ber"), is considered the greatest Arab alchemist. The son of a druggist, he was the first to describe the preparation of cinnabar, arsenious oxide, mercury oxide, and other noxious ingredients in his search for the elusive Elixir Vitae -- a substance that would cure all ills, rejuvenate aging bodies, confer immortality. In later centuries, Jabir's works on alchemy were translated into Latin, making their way into Europe where they became the basis for many of the basic terms of chemistry and pharmacy known today. geber; woodcut photo: sceti But it wasn't until after the First Crusade (1095-1100 AD) that alchemy really came to Europe. Against enormous odds, the first armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land was successful and the Christians captured Jerusalem in 1100. Benefiting from the disunity of their Muslim opponents, the Crusaders set up the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291) and many stayed on. When some began returning to their homelands, they brought with them the knowledge of alchemy. European alchemists based much of their 'science' on the writings of Empedocles (492-432 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) whose writings had been lost in Europe until the Renaissance and had came back to Europe through Islamic philosophers in Andalusian Spain -- and who were, at least momentarily, acceptable to the Catholic Church. The premise of Aristotle that most caught the eye of alchemists was the idea that all things tend towards perfection -- and since gold was a "perfect substance," then it must follow that all metals were trying to become gold. However, even the promise of "free gold" couldn't overcome the interdiction of the church in the thirteenth century who came out strongly against alchemy, largely because of its connection to astrology. (Harkening back to the early Taoist alchemists, in the twelfth century a man named Artephius (c.1119) wrote The Art of Prolonging Life -- a book rife with references to mercury -- in which he claimed to have found the famous "Philosopher's Stone" (after having "descended to hell, and seeing the devil sitting on a throne of gold, with a legion of imps and fiends around him") and to have lived 1,000 years. Some thought too many years working with noxious substances had taken their toll...) newton: scientist or "obsessive, driven mystic"? While most of us know Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) as the founder of modern science -- the man who 'discovered gravity' -- during the the several decades between his discovery of the law of gravity and the publication of his masterwork, the Principia Mathematica -- his all-consuming passion was alchemy. Altogether, he wrote more than a million words on the subject. British economist John Maynard Keynes who in 1936 purchased a cache of writings by Newton -- journals and personal notebooks deemed by Newton's heirs to be "of no scientific value" -- was quoted in a lecture to the Royal Society Club in 1942 as saying "Newton was not the first of the age of reason, he was the last of the magicians." When examining the entire span of Newton's career, alchemy clearly overweighs chemistry -- he wrote over a million words on the subject. For twenty years, cocooned in his solitary live-in lab at the edge of the fens near Cambridge, Newton indulged in occult literature and strove to cook up the legendary "philosopher's stone" that would convert base metals into gold.
Mercury ore was a precious mineral for the Olmecs who used cinnabar's color to emphasize features of their totemic carvings and other sacred art through "cinnabar tracing." They are known to have mined cinnabar and quicksilver (underground) 1250 BC to 400 BC. Olmec and Shang dynasty symbols for sun, sky, trees, water, rain, astronomy, sacrifice and religion are so close that Xu believes they can't be accidental. The symbols not only occur in the same sequences in both cultures, symbols can be read as sentences -- the same sentences with the same meanings in China and in Mexico. Of the Olmec, Xu says: "It seems like those people [the Olmecs] came out of the sky. Overnight they knew how to use jade, damasks. They had astrology, astronomy..." There's a legend in China that when the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang, some 250,000 displaced people disappeared -- Zu believes some of them made it to the Americas.	blood of the earth Beginning with the Olmecs -- a people who suddenly appeared in Mesoamerica about 3,000 years ago -- cinnabar was used ritually in the Americas. Mined in Queretaro, about 120 miles from the Olmec center of Teotihuacan (near today's Mexico City), the Olmec called cinnabar "blood of the earth," a pigment color they appreciated as a symbol of life. "baby figure," 12th�9th century bc, olmec; ceramic cinnabar, red ocher photo: metropolitan museum of art In 1994, archeologists exploring the Mayan ruins of Palenque, in Chiapas, discovered a secret door that led to the interior of the pyramid and an underground temple with three rooms. In the middle room was a solid stone coffin with the remains of a woman who archaeologists have called the "Red Queen" because she was covered in cinnabar. Archeologists have since found other entombed royals liberally coated with cinnabar. Michael Xu, a linguist who teaches Chinese studies at Texas Christian University has found a number of astonishing similarities between the Shang (1766-1050 BC) and Zhou (1027-777 BC) dynasties of China and the Olmec -- a people who appear to have had no antecedents in the Americas -- they just suddenly appeared. For instance, they shared a number of practices regarding the decoration of ceremonial objects such as placing a jade bead or jade cicada -- known as a jade celt in the mouth of the dead and painting jade corpse-amulets with the life-giving color of cinnabar. Xu says: "You cannot find jade celts anywhere else in the world except ancient China and Mesoamerican sites. Nobody else used jade for ritual objects, for burial, especially wrapped up in cinnabar, the red powder, except in these two places."
Native Ohlones traveled to what became known as the New Almaden Mine -- controlled by the Quiroste tribelet (pronounced KEER-os-tay) -- via Los Alamitos Creek to gather cinnabar, which they traded as far away as Puget Sound, Washington. In 1784, the Ohlones consecrated the walls of the Franciscan Mission, Santa Clara, with sacred mohetka . Within a few months of Castillero's discovery, he returned to Mexico to seek financing. With war between the U.S. and Mexico imminent, he never returned. Both the New Almaden Mine and the Almaden Valley in which it resides get their names from the Almaden mercury deposit in Spain, the world�s oldest continually active mine. By 1854, with California's Gold Rush in full swing, the New Almaden mine was already a substantial operation due to the role of mercury in separating precious metals such as gold and silver from contaminants. The mine eventually developed into the richest quicksilver (mercury) mine in California, with shafts extending 2,300 feet below the ground. The mine closed in 1972 in response to the discovery of mercury's toxicity. In the 1860's, the Mexican and Indian miners who worked the New Almaden mine put in 11-hour shifts, six days a week. An average of four miners died each year of mercury poisoning.	marvelous mohetka In 1845, Andres Castillero, a Mexican cavalry officer schooled in mineralogy, made an exciting discovery in what was to be named the Almaden Valley, sixty miles south of San Francisco. The Mexican government had a long-standing reward of $100,000 for anyone who discovered a workable mercury deposit in the New World, and Castillero had just stumbled upon what would soon be known as the world's fifth largest deposit of cinnabar ore. ohlone indian ceremonial dance at mission san jose � 1806 photo: soft underbelly of san jose Although new to the Mexicans, the local Native American Ohlones, whose territory ranged roughly from Big Sur to the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay, had quarried the highly coveted mineral in the "Cinnabar Hills" of Almaden Valley for hundreds of years. They and other Pacific Northwest tribes prized the bright red clay they called mohetka ("red earth"), grinding it, then mixing the dust with tallow until it was a consistency conducive to painting their bodies. Even though the Ohlone made the connection between mohetka and skin irritation, retarded growth, excessive salivation, and pockmarked skin, they were still willing to fight over it. According to "Ethnographic Background," from a 1991 report titled, The Santa's Village Site CA-SCr=23: "Cinnabar expeditions came from as far away as Walla Walla, Washington, to trade or fight for the prized pigment. Mission records from Mission Santa Clara note that the Indians of Santa Cruz and Santa Clara seemed to have been fighting incessantly over the rights to the cinnabar deposit. In 1841, Indians from Tulare and Sacramento came as a regular cinnabar expedition to the quarry and one of the intruders was killed by the Santa Clara Ohlones." A century and a half later, nature has regained the upper hand. Only a few structures, in advanced stages of decay, remain -- scraps of boards and nails and the magnificent view north and east toward San Jose and across the Santa Clara Valley to the Diablo Range and Mount Hamilton.