What was metal first purified from ore?
More than likely Summerian potters were the first to get copper from ore. Originally copper was used, but was hard to find – you could only use the nuggets of copper that you would find scattered around on occasion. The potters come into play because they were the ones with high temperature ovens (kilns), and they would be the ones experimenting with melting down rock to find new glazes. Someone at somepoint probably tossed some of those funny green rocks found all over the place into a kiln and was amazed to find liquid copper come out.
