orichalcum
Sign in to saveAlso known as orichalc, orichalch, orichalchum, aurichalcum, auricalke, oricalche, orichalke, mountain copper
Orichalcum (or aurichalcum) or orichalc is a metal mentioned in several ancient writings, including the story of Atlantis in the Critias of Plato. Within the dialogue, Critias (460–403 BC) says that orichalcum had been considered second only to gold in value and had been found and mined in many parts of Atlantis in ancient times, but that by Critias's own time, orichalcum was known only by name.
Key facts
- Material.name
- Orichalcum
- Material.image
- Oricalco Gela.jpg
- Material.caption
- Orichalcum found in Gela, Sicily
- Material.type
- Metal
- Material.gas_perm_temp
- 20 °C
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 2 more facts
- Commons category
- Orichalcum
- described by source
- Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Overview
- Discovery of ingots
- In ancient literature
- Numismatics
- In media
- See also
- References
- External links
Orichalcum (or aurichalcum) or orichalc is a metal mentioned in several ancient writings, including the story of Atlantis in the Critias of Plato. Within the dialogue, Critias (460–403 BC) says that orichalcum had been considered second only to gold in value and had been found and mined in many parts of Atlantis in ancient times, but that by Critias's own time, orichalcum was known only by name.
Orichalcum may have been used in reference to a specific noble metal, such as platinum, as it was supposed to be mined, but has been identified as pure copper or certain alloys of bronze, and especially brass alloys in the case of antique Roman coins, the latter being of "similar appearance to modern brass" according to scientific research.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “orichalcum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.