Metals of antiquity Metals of antiquity The metals of antiquity are the seven metals which humans had identified and found use for in prehistoric times: gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, and mercury. These seven are the metals from which the modern world was forged; until the discovery of arsenic in the 13th century, these were the only known elemental metals, compared to the 86 known today. The metals of antiquity generally have low melting points, with iron being the exception. While all the metals of antiquity but tin and lead occur natively, only gold and silver are commonly found as the native
Period 5 element other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides. While many medical antimicrobial uses of silver have been supplanted by antibiotics, further research into clinical potential continues. Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and like mercury it shows a low melting point compared to transition metals. Cadmium and its congeners are not always considered transition metals, in that they do not have