In 5000BC, the fusion and refinement of copper from oxids like the malaquita e azurita. The first signs of the use of gold were not seen until 4000BC. Sumerian copper and bronze coins, weapons, domestic utensils were discovered, and they were dated from 3000BC, as well as Egiptian artifacts dated from the same time, including copper tubes. The Egiptians also discovered that by adding small quantities amounts of tin, it made more easy the fusion of the metal, and they perfected the methods of getting the bronze. While observing the durability of the material, they represented the copper with the Ankh, symbol of the eternal life.
Corinthian bronze was most prevalent in Alexandria, where alchemy is thought to have begun. In ancient India (before 1000 B.C.), copper was used in the holistic medical science Ayurveda for surgical instruments and other medical equipment. Ancient Egyptians (~2400 B.C.) used copper for sterilizing wounds and drinking water, and as time passed, (~1500 B.C.) for headaches, burns, and itching.
Hippocrates (~400 B.C.) used copper to treat leg ulcers associated with varicose veins. Ancient Aztecs fought sore throats by gargling with copper mixtures.
In ancient China, the use of copper has at least 4000 years. In 1200BC, they already produced bronze of excellent quality, and they establish an obvious domain without comparision in the west. In Europe, the Iceman discovered in Tirol (Italy) in 1991, whose remains have an age of 5300 years was accompanied by a copper ax with a purity of 99,7%, and the elevated rates of arsenic found in his hair, prove that he smelted the metal for the tool manufacture.
The Fenicians imported the copper from Greece, not delaying in exploring the mines of his territory as it attests the citie names of Calce, Calcis e Calcitis (de χαλκος, bronze), though it has been Cyprus, halfway between Greece and Egypt, for much time the country of the copper par excellence, to the point of the Romans called the metal of aes cyprium or simply cyprium and cuprum, from where its name comes. Besides, the copper was represented by the same sign which Venus (the Greek afrodite), since Cyprus was consecrated the goddess of the beauty and the mirrors were manufactured by this metal. The symbol, mirror of Venus of the mythology and alchemy, modification of the Egyptian Ankh, was subsequently adopted by Carl Linné to symbolize the feminine gender (♀).
