5 ms·

Liquid mercury found under Mexican pyramid could lead to king's tomb

92 points by benbreen 12y ago

Jolijn 12y ago
Mercury actually concentrates into little beads on cinnabar ore, and is not very reactive. I can imagine drops of it surviving for a few thousands years.
Jun8 12y ago
Interesting parallel to the flowing rivers is mercury in the best known Chinese tomb: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/01/flowing-rivers-mercury http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/01/flowing-rivers-mer... Speaking of using robots to investigate mysterious tunnels in tombs, one of the most publicized one must be the discovery of doors in a tunnel within the Great Pyramid: http://www.sciencealert.com/robot-captures-first-images-of-great-pyramids-secret-chamber http://www.sciencealert.com/robot-captures-first-images-of-g...
s_q_b 12y ago
That mercury is designed to kill anyone who enters. It's probably the source of a lot of myths surrounding raiding ancient tombs, and it's found across the globe, most prominently in China. These guys knew someone would come for their treasure someday.
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  While we think of it as a hazard today, references to quicksilver in history don't connect it with killing people, see https://books.google.com/books?id=nCKxSwUlX-AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=quicksilver&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wNM7VfrONou5oQSBpYDoBg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=quicksilver&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=nCKxSwUlX-AC&printsec=fron... for example.
  - s_q_b 12y ago
    Fascinating, I love being wrong here. I looked into it for an hour and you're absolutely right. Sincerely, thank you for educating me about that. I was always told it was a defensive mechanism, even by archaeology professors. I wonder how that myth became so widespread in academia.
    - s_q_b 12y ago
      May I also say that this is the only place on the Internet, of which I know, where an admission of being incorrect is greeted by a torrent of support rather than mocking or denigration? Academic discovery includes being wrong, and the fact that this is still understood here makes it an extremely rare place. Please, please no upvotes to this comment, as I'm simply trying express my gratitude for all of your support for an essential element of academic inquiry. From the deepest part of my heart, thank you, HN.
  - steve19 12y ago
    Its not mentioned in Wikipedia but people still consume small amounts for cinnabar (ore of mercury) for medicinal purposes. Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, this is not advice, just my personal experience... It works amazingly well to soothe a sore throat (temporarily), far better than the usual lozenges and without the numbing sensation that the stronger sprays and lozenges have. I don't know where to get it. Amazon does not list it. Googling seems to show that it can be purchased from pharmacies in the UK... But I do wonder how safe it is.
    - doodlebugging 12y ago
      When I was a kid any mention of a sore throat brought out the swabs and the merthiolate or mercuro-chrome. I think that's what it was called anyway. Always ended up with red-orange tonsils. Also, any cuts or scrapes were dosed with the same stuff. Band-aids and mercuro-chrome - I'll never forget the smell of a new band-aid.
- AnDowNS 12y ago
  While there are some extremely toxic mercury compounds, elemental mercury is not among them. See: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200006153422405 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200006153422405
  - refurb 12y ago
    Wow! I had no idea you could inject that much mercury and have so few side effects from it. The article states she injected 10 mL of mercury which, due the density of mercury, is 136 g or 0.3 lbs.
- geedy 12y ago
  Some of these ancient rulers thought that Mercury would prolong life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang
- madaxe_again 12y ago
  Carbon dioxide was a more common hazard - organic material decomposing in a sealed chamber would result in CO2 pooling in the depths, meaning that a visitor many years later could asphyxiate upon entry, which would undoubtedly discourage his friends from following.
- peter303 12y ago
  Incorrect. Mercury is considered an elixir of immortality by both European and Eastern alchemists. It would be added to a tomb to promote eternal life. Pure mercury or it's cinnabar sulfate behaves as preservative on skins or corpse skin paintings. It's not really a big leap then to add it to immortality potions.
darkhorn 12y ago
At that antient times where on earth they find so much mercury? And how they place it there without killing themselves? And how they learned that it was lethal?
- Eupolemos 12y ago
  In Cinnabar. They (most likely) didn't know it was unhealthy.
  - jjoonathan 12y ago
    It's worth mentioning that Hg extraction isn't very complicated. Its the kind of thing that we might expect people fooling around with putting stuff in fires would discover by accident. Just roast the ore (Cinnabar, HgS) at the relatively modest temperature of 350˚C or higher and the mercury will evaporate off, likely condensing on a nearby surface. Bam, liquid mercury. Control the condensation and you've got liquid mercury on a large scale. By comparison, smelting iron is much more complicated (higher temperatures + it's a chemical reaction not just "bake and go" + residual carbon content must be controlled for strength + annealing strategy significantly affects its desirable properties).
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  Liquid mercury isn't actually all that toxic. Not what you'd call healthy, maybe, but not anywhere near the level of some of the mercury compounds.
hughes 12y ago
I would hope it's liquid mercury. Finding mercury in any other state at ambient conditions would be quite unlikely.
- teraflop 12y ago
  The headline was probably intended to specify that it was elemental mercury, as opposed to mercury-containing compounds or minerals.

92 points by benbreen 12y ago

Mercury actually concentrates into little beads on cinnabar ore, and is not very reactive. I can imagine drops of it surviving for a few thousands years.

Jun8 12y ago

Interesting parallel to the flowing rivers is mercury in the best known Chinese tomb: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/01/flowing-rivers-mercury http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/01/flowing-rivers-mer... Speaking of using robots to investigate mysterious tunnels in tombs, one of the most publicized one must be the discovery of doors in a tunnel within the Great Pyramid: http://www.sciencealert.com/robot-captures-first-images-of-great-pyramids-secret-chamber http://www.sciencealert.com/robot-captures-first-images-of-g...

s_q_b 12y ago

That mercury is designed to kill anyone who enters. It's probably the source of a lot of myths surrounding raiding ancient tombs, and it's found across the globe, most prominently in China. These guys knew someone would come for their treasure someday.

ChuckMcM 12y ago
While we think of it as a hazard today, references to quicksilver in history don't connect it with killing people, see https://books.google.com/books?id=nCKxSwUlX-AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=quicksilver&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wNM7VfrONou5oQSBpYDoBg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=quicksilver&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=nCKxSwUlX-AC&printsec=fron... for example.
- s_q_b 12y ago
  Fascinating, I love being wrong here. I looked into it for an hour and you're absolutely right. Sincerely, thank you for educating me about that. I was always told it was a defensive mechanism, even by archaeology professors. I wonder how that myth became so widespread in academia.
  - s_q_b 12y ago
    May I also say that this is the only place on the Internet, of which I know, where an admission of being incorrect is greeted by a torrent of support rather than mocking or denigration? Academic discovery includes being wrong, and the fact that this is still understood here makes it an extremely rare place. Please, please no upvotes to this comment, as I'm simply trying express my gratitude for all of your support for an essential element of academic inquiry. From the deepest part of my heart, thank you, HN.
- steve19 12y ago
  Its not mentioned in Wikipedia but people still consume small amounts for cinnabar (ore of mercury) for medicinal purposes. Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, this is not advice, just my personal experience... It works amazingly well to soothe a sore throat (temporarily), far better than the usual lozenges and without the numbing sensation that the stronger sprays and lozenges have. I don't know where to get it. Amazon does not list it. Googling seems to show that it can be purchased from pharmacies in the UK... But I do wonder how safe it is.
  - doodlebugging 12y ago
    When I was a kid any mention of a sore throat brought out the swabs and the merthiolate or mercuro-chrome. I think that's what it was called anyway. Always ended up with red-orange tonsils. Also, any cuts or scrapes were dosed with the same stuff. Band-aids and mercuro-chrome - I'll never forget the smell of a new band-aid.
AnDowNS 12y ago
While there are some extremely toxic mercury compounds, elemental mercury is not among them. See: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200006153422405 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200006153422405
- refurb 12y ago
  Wow! I had no idea you could inject that much mercury and have so few side effects from it. The article states she injected 10 mL of mercury which, due the density of mercury, is 136 g or 0.3 lbs.
geedy 12y ago
Some of these ancient rulers thought that Mercury would prolong life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang
madaxe_again 12y ago
Carbon dioxide was a more common hazard - organic material decomposing in a sealed chamber would result in CO2 pooling in the depths, meaning that a visitor many years later could asphyxiate upon entry, which would undoubtedly discourage his friends from following.
peter303 12y ago
Incorrect. Mercury is considered an elixir of immortality by both European and Eastern alchemists. It would be added to a tomb to promote eternal life. Pure mercury or it's cinnabar sulfate behaves as preservative on skins or corpse skin paintings. It's not really a big leap then to add it to immortality potions.

darkhorn 12y ago

At that antient times where on earth they find so much mercury? And how they place it there without killing themselves? And how they learned that it was lethal?

Eupolemos 12y ago
In Cinnabar. They (most likely) didn't know it was unhealthy.
- jjoonathan 12y ago
  It's worth mentioning that Hg extraction isn't very complicated. Its the kind of thing that we might expect people fooling around with putting stuff in fires would discover by accident. Just roast the ore (Cinnabar, HgS) at the relatively modest temperature of 350˚C or higher and the mercury will evaporate off, likely condensing on a nearby surface. Bam, liquid mercury. Control the condensation and you've got liquid mercury on a large scale. By comparison, smelting iron is much more complicated (higher temperatures + it's a chemical reaction not just "bake and go" + residual carbon content must be controlled for strength + annealing strategy significantly affects its desirable properties).
Turing_Machine 12y ago
Liquid mercury isn't actually all that toxic. Not what you'd call healthy, maybe, but not anywhere near the level of some of the mercury compounds.

hughes 12y ago

I would hope it's liquid mercury. Finding mercury in any other state at ambient conditions would be quite unlikely.

teraflop 12y ago
The headline was probably intended to specify that it was elemental mercury, as opposed to mercury-containing compounds or minerals.