The first metal ever mined

I am all over you.

You can find me to electronic circuits small and big

to electronic systems on Earth and satellites

You can find me ιν countless kilometers of cables, that bring electricity,

water, telephone and internet  in your home.

In ships and vehicles .

I am copper

Shiny, reddish copper, an important metal in industry today is found in the free metallic state in nature and is an unusually good conductor of electricity and heat. Along with Gold ranks as the oldest medal known to civilization. Other than Gold, copper is the only metal with a natural color. All other metals are either white or gray.

Copper is believed to have originated from Cyprus, where Romans used to mine it from their rich copper mines. Its name (copper) originated from the Latin word Cuprum (CU). In ancient alchemy and mythology, copper was associated with protection of the goddess Aphrodite. This was mainly due to its radiant beauty and origin from the Island of Cyprus, which was considered sacred.

Copper is the human’s oldest metal. Its use dates back to about 10,000 years ago. A copper pendant that was discovered in the modern Northern Iraq dates back more than 8,700 B.C.  Early Egyptian used the symbol to represent copper in their system of writing (hieroglyphs). It was a symbol of eternal life. So important was the metal in human development that it gave its name to the Copper Age, today better known as the Chalcolithic.

The early Greeks were no doubt chiefly indebted for a supply of the various metals to the commerce of the Phoenicians, who procured them principally from Arabia and Spain. In the Homeric poems we find an allusion to this traffic as one in which the Greeks of the western coast were already engaged;, where Athena personates Mentes, the ruler of the Taphians, carrying shining iron to Temesa in Cyprus, to exchange it for copper (Od. I.184). The Homeric poems furnish ample proofs of how much more plentiful copper was than iron.

The Greeks, with their exquisitely fine sense of aesthetic appreciation, their knowledge of perspective and movement and drapery, and their awareness of anatomy, brought the fine arts to a pitch that subsequent nations have copied but never surpassed. They excelled particularly in sculpture, and as several kinds of fine marble were abundant, they made great use of that medium but they also used bronze to a considerable degree, although most of their larger pieces were melted down in later centuries because of their monetary value.

One of their most famous works, which stood in the Parthenon, was a colossal statue of the patron goddess of the city, Athene. This was 40 ft high, sculptured by the immortal Phidias, and entirely of gold and ivory. Outside the temple were two other colossal statues of Athene, both in bronze. One stood on the comer of the Acropolis and was visible far out to sea.

Copper is easily stretched, molded, and shaped, is resistant to corrosion and conducts heat and electricity efficiently. As a result, copper was important to early humans and continues to be a material of choice for a variety of domestic, industrial, and high-technology applications today.