Metals of antiquity metal. While widely known during antiquity, these metals are by no means common. Yet all were known and available in tangible quantities in ancient times. Each of the metals was associated with one of the seven then-known celestial bodies, and one of the seven days of the week. 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
Period 6 element shows in its compounds a wide variety of oxidation states ranging from −1 to +7. Discovered in 1925, rhenium was the last stable element to be discovered. It was named after the river Rhine in Europe. Nickel-based superalloys of rhenium are used in the combustion chambers, turbine blades, and exhaust nozzles of jet engines, these alloys contain up to 6% rhenium, making jet engine construction the largest single use for the element, with the chemical industry's catalytic uses being next-most important. Because of the low availability relative to demand, rhenium is among the most expensive of metals, with an average