Roll no.

Group Members
Class - XII
21 Maitray Gole
Group - 5 22 Mandar Joshi
23 Nitesh Poojari
24 Omkar Kumbhar
25 Priyanshu Mondal
Ancient Man and Chemistry
What is Chemistry
Chemistry is the study of composition,
structure and properties of the
substances and the changes or
transformation they undergo.
Why Do We Need Chemistry?
Chemistry is essential for meeting our basic needs
of food, clothing, shelter, health, energy, and
clean air, water, and soil.

The Ancient Humans also

used chemistry to craft things
with considerable skills, but
with no understanding of
the principles involved .
The First Scientists
The first signs of use of chemistry trace back to 1,00,000 years ago.
When ancient humans used a bright yellow and red iron oxide known
as Ochre. It was discovered in Blombos’ cave an archaeological site
located in Blombos Private Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of
Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. Where the
first 10,000 of homosapiens used to live before taking over the world.
The Blombos’ cave were the first Laboratory where humans
performed experiment.
The Early Use of Chemistry

According to the research and theories the Ancient

men may have used the Yellow-Red Ochre to Make
cave paintings, Carve their weapons and tools, as
a mosquito repellent , to preserve animal skins, and
also to carve artworks. They also mixed the Ochre
with animal blood to paint on the caves.
Early Metallurgy
The earliest recorded metal employed by humans seems to be gold,
which can be found free or "native". Small amounts of natural gold
have been found in Spanish caves used during the late Paleolithic
period, around 40,000 BC.Silver, copper, tin and meteoric iron can also
be found native, allowing a limited amount of metalworking in ancient
cultures.Egyptian
weapons made from
meteoric iron in about
3000 BC were highly
prized as "daggers
from Heaven".
The First Controlled Chemical Reaction
The first chemical reaction used in a controlled manner was fire.
However, for millennia fire was seen simply as a mystical force that
could transform one substance into another while producing heat
and light. Fire affected many aspects of early societies. These ranged
from the simplest facets of everyday life, such as cooking and habitat
heating and lighting, to more advanced uses, such as for making
pottery and bricks and melting of
metals to make tools.
It was fire that led to the discovery of
glass and the purification of metals;
this was followed by the rise of
metallurgy.During the early stages of
metallurgy, methods of purification of
metals were sought, and gold, known
in ancient Egypt as early as 2900 BC,
became a precious metal.
Bronze Age
These first metals were single elements, or else combinations as naturally occurred. By
combining copper and tin, a superior metal could be made, an alloy called Bronze.
This was a major technological shift which began the Bronze Age about 3500 BC. The
Bronze Age was a period in human cultural development when the most advanced
metalworking included techniques for smelting copper
and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings
of copper ores, and then smelting those ores to
cast bronze.
After the Bronze Age, the history of metallurgy
was marked by armies seeking better weaponry.
States in Eurasia prospered when they made the
superior alloys, which, in turn, made better armor
and better weapons.Significant progress in
metallurgy and alchemy was made in ancient India.
Iron Age
Iron working appears to have been invented by the Hittites in about 1200
BC, beginning the Iron Age. The secret of extracting and working iron was a
key factor in the success of the Philistines. The Iron Age refers to the advent
of iron working. Historical developments in ferrous metallurgy can be
found in a wide variety of past cultures and civilizations. These include the
ancient and medieval kingdoms and empires of the Middle East and Near
East, ancient Iran, ancient Egypt, ancient and medieval China and ancient
and medieval India.
Conclusion
Hence we saw that even the early men were scientists and they used
chemistry without knowing about it and without any studies. The
early men were exploring the whole world and while doing it they did
many great discoveries without knowing as mistakes which are an
important part of our life now.