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The Mineral Products of Melos in Antiquity and their Identification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Jill Pittinger
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Extract

According to literary sources, the various products of vulcanicity were in great demand for both manufacturing and medicinal purposes in the ancient world, as they are today. These include pumice, fuller's earth (a form of calcium montmorillonite), sulphur, and the alumen of the Romans, which was probably aluminium sulphate, or a related substance. The island of Melos, in the Cyclades, was particularly noted in Antiquity for its mineral products, and in this brief article an attempt is made to summarize the references to these products by the various Greek and Roman authors, and to identify them and the people concerned with their mining and extraction in Antiquity, on the basis of recent geological and archaeological observations made by the author on the island.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 70 , November 1975 , pp. 191 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1975

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References

Acknowledgement. I should like to thank Dr. H. W. Catling for his most useful advice during the preparation of this paper.

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