Lead
Plomo (Pb, Z=82)
- Date
- c. 4000 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Northern Mesopotamia (Yarim Tepe) and the Levant
- Credited to
- Unknown (prehistory)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
The supposed lead beads from Çatalhöyük (c. 6500 BCE) turned out to be galena and cerussite, not metal; the earliest metallic lead objects are a bracelet from Yarim Tepe I (6th millennium BCE) and a near-pure lead object from Ashalim Cave (late 5th millennium BCE). Its ease of reduction from galena made it one of the earliest smelted metals.
Prehistoric element; approximate date.
What it led to
- Roman pipes and aqueducts
- Printing type and lead-acid batteries
- Radiation shielding
Built on
- Galena
- Reduction furnaces
Made possible
- Lead-acid rechargeable battery1859
- Lead-acid battery
- Movable type