Kean miltos: The well-known iron oxides of antiquity

The Annual of the British School at Athens

Volumn 92, Issue 126, 1997, Pages 359-371

  Photos Jones, E ^a   Cottier, A ^a   Hall, A J ^a   Mendoni, L G ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

^b Centre of Greek and Roman Antiquities   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 85008539447     PISSN: 00682454     EISSN: 20452403     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400016737     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. Aetius Amidenus, Libri medicinales, ii. 5 (ed. A. Olivieri, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum [= CMG], 8.1, p. 157. 8-14), viii. 31, 62 (ed. Olivieri, CMG 8. 2, pp. 444. 21, 528. 17); Dioscorides, De materia medica, v. 96, 126. 5.
2. G. Sanders, E. Photos-Jones, and A. J. Hall, ‘Industriai minerals in antiquity: the case of Melos’, in preparation. On Melos bentonite (mainly Ca-montmorillonite) is currently being exploited for a range of purposes as varied as the oil industry, foundries, and producers of cat-litter; see M. Stamatakis, U. Lutat, M. Regueiro, and J. Calvo, ‘Milos, the mineral island’, Industrial Minerals Journal, 1996, 57-61. Yet similar, if not the same deposits were used in antiquity for the cloth industry (in fuller's earth) or for pharmaceutical purposes as ointments. See R. H. S. Robertson, Fuller's Earth: A History of Calcium Montmorillonite (Mineralogical Society Occasional Publication; Volturna, 1986).
3. Tod, GHI ii. 162, lines 9-24; see F. Meijer and O. van Nijf, Trade, Transport and Society in the Ancient World: A Sourcebook (London, 1992), 34.
4. Other sources of miltos include Egypt and Carthage (Dioscorides v. 96. 3).
5. D. Robinson, ‘Ancient Sinope’, AJP 27 (1906), 142.
6. Lemnos was the source of two different types of materials: a red miltos and a red earth called Lemnian sphragis since it was packaged in sealed containers. According to Robertson (n. 5), 37, the latter was most probably fuller's earth and was used as ointment. Therefore, it was the sphragis which had the medicinal properties rather than miltos itself.
7. Ed. D. E. Eichholz (Oxford, 1965), p. 74.
8. Mendoni and Photos-Jones (n. 1). For the Laurion equivalent see E. Photos-Jones and J. E. Jones, ‘The building and industrial remains at Agrileza, Laurion (fourth century BC) and their contribution to the workings at the site’, BSA 89 (1994). 307-58.
9. In their extensive survey of northern Kea, J. Cherry, J. Davis, and E. Mantzourani (Landscape Archaeology as Long-Term History: Northern Keos in the Cycladic Islands from Earliest Settlement until Modern Times (Los Angeles, 1991) did not report evidence for iron slag. Iron, copper and lead slags are evident in the south and the central part of the island, Mendoni and Photos-Jones (n. 1); M. Caskey, L. Mendoni, A. Papastamataki, and N. Beloyannis, ‘Metals in Keos: a first approach’, in G. Marinos and G. Koukis (eds), Engineering Geology of Ancient Works, Monuments and Historical Sites (Rotterdam, 1988), 1739-45.
10. W. Rostoker and J. Dvorak, ‘Miltos and Metallurgical Extraction’, in Cherry et al. (n. 13), 141-7.
11. Mendoni and Photos-Jones (n. 1).
12. Rostoker and Dvorak (n. 15), 147; Theophrastus, De Lapidibus, 52, trans. Eichholz: ‘Ruddle of inferior quality is produced by burning ochre. The invention belongs to Cydias, who is said to have grasped it through noticing that, when a general stores was destroyed by fire, half-burnt ochre had turned crimson. New pots luted with clay are placed in a furnace. When the pots are thoroughly exposed to the fire, they cause the ochre to be baked, and the more they are burnt the darker and more glowing the ochre becomes.’
13. A. Cottier, ‘Kean Miltos: the nature, composition and properties of Kean iron oxides’ (unpublished BSc dissertation, University of Glasgow, 1996).
14. M. Blake, C. Bonneau, J. Geyssant, J. R. Kienast, and C. Lepvrier, ‘A geological reconnaissance of the Cycladic Blueschist Belt, Greece’, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 92 1/5 (1981), 247-5410.1130/0016-7606(1981)92<247:AGROTC>2.0.CO;2 M. Bonneau, ‘Correlation of the Hellenide nappes in the South-East Aegean and their tectonic reconstruction’, in J. Dixon and A. Robertson (eds), The Geological Evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean (Oxford, 1984).
15. Marble, although not shown in the map on Fig. 1, was nevertheless present in the vicinity of Trypospilies cave, Kalamos.
16. The processes have been discussed at length in A. J. Hall, ‘Geology and mineralisation of South Kea’, Appendix in Mendoni and Photos-Jones (n. 1); Cottier (n. 19). A brief account is given in the text.
17. Dioscorides (n. 18).
18. Readings were taken in Glasgow using artificial light in a room by the window at the same time on two different days.
19. The sample was supplied courtesy of the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow.
20. U. Schwertmann and R. Cornell, Iron Oxides in the Laboratory: Preparation and Characterisation (Weinheim and Cambridge, 1991), 33.
21. Rostoker and Dvorak (n. 15), 144.
22. In limonite water is found within the lattice as well as between crystals, creating much more amorphous material. It should be noted that the degree of goethite crystallinity demonstrated by the Orkos samples is quite remarkable since this mineral, especially in secondary mineralization, often lacks (although not to the same extent as limonite) well-developed crystals.
23. G. Frenzel, ‘The manganese ore minerals’, in K. M. Varentsov and G. Grassely (eds), Geology and Geochemistry of Manganese, i (Stuttgart, 1991), 25-158.
24. C. E. Brown, ‘Pigments and Fillers’, in D. A. Brobst and W. P. Pratt (eds), United States Mineral Resources, US Geological Survey Prof. Paper 820 (1973), 527-36, cited in P. Harben and R. Bates, Industrial Minerals, Geology and World Deposits (Industrial Minerals Division, Metal Bulletin plc; London, 1990), 141.
25. Theophrastus (n. 17).
26. A number of experimental trials were carried out to ascertain the optimum conditions (Cottier, n. 19). The transition in chemical terms is
27. N. Heaton, Outlines of Paint Technology (London, 1947).
28. Outlines of Paint Technology.
29. Outlines of Paint Technology. 16.
30. Outlines of Paint Technology.
31. Scholia Graeca in Aristophanem, ed. Fr. Dübner (Paris, 1843), p. 318 Pollux viii. 104; cf. Acharmans 19-22 with scholia on v. 22 (Scholia in Aristophanem 1.1B, ed. N. G. Wilson, 10).