| 21. | Some of these cast silver artifacts contained less than 0.5 % lead, which strongly indicates cupellation.
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| 22. | At the time that the Gundestrup cauldron was created, silver was obtained through cupellation of lead / silver ores.
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| 23. | By the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, cupellation was one of the most common processes for refining precious metals.
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| 24. | Since the Renaissance, cupellation became a standardised method of analysis that has changed very little, demonstrating its efficiency.
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| 25. | Fire assay, as applied to ores, concentrates or less pure metals, adds a fusion or scorification step before cupellation.
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| 26. | Cupellation was able to remove gold and silver from mixtures containing lead and other metals, but silver could not be removed.
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| 27. | Cupellation involved removing the lead from a silver-rich alloy by oxidising the lead to litharge, leaving the silver behind.
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| 28. | Small-scale cupellation may be considered the most important fire assay developed in history, and perhaps the origin of chemical analysis.
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| 29. | After solidification, the samples are knocked out, and the lead bullets recovered for cupellation, or for analysis by other means.
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| 30. | In the Americas, high temperature silver-lead cupellation technology was developed by pre-Inca civilizations as early as AD 60 120.
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