Beyond the silver ‘owls’: Laurion lead and its contribution to synthetic lead-based minerals for the health care/medicines market (4th century BC)

This short paper aims to highlight the use of lead metal from Laurion in the 4th century BC; not merely as a functional metal; but as a raw material in the manufacture of synthetic lead-based minerals; (psimythion; Pb-CO3) aimed at the health care/pharmaceuticals market of antiquity and as pigments. The paper brings together past and recent work by the author and her colleagues. Past work relates to the analysis of tailings from ore processing recovered from the 1980s excavations of the washeries at Agrileza; Laurion. Recent work concerns the examination of pellets of psimythion (PbCO3) from Athens and Boeotia dating to the 4th century BC; now in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum; Athens (NAM). Comparison of the relative concentrations of Ag and Pb in the three data sets (as grams of Ag to ton of Pb) suggests a preference for an Ag-rich source (whether Pb metal or Pb ore). It is therefore suggested that a) the pellets of psimythion must have been made; if not in Laurion; but of Laurion lead; and b) for the manufacturing of psimythion for the health care/medicines industry; silver-rich lead metal seems to have been preferred over de-silverized lead. Presently; and in view of small data sets; it cannot be said with confidence whether this was a deliberate choice or not.
After nearly 150 years of continuous research into Laurion’s 5th – 4th century BC activities associated with the production of the Athens silver coinage (owls); it is perhaps now timely to begin looking for evidence for other Pb/Ag-based industrial activities servicing other markets; as well; in that context it is important to keep an open mind as to what we define as ‘waste’. Lithargyros (translated as litharge); thought to have been the ‘waste’ product of silver making was another synthetic mineral in its own right.