Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making

Discovery & Wonder—The 7,000-Year Origin Story They Got Wrong

• MesotheliomaPodcast.com • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Archaeological evidence from Finnish Neolithic sites pushes the first known human use of asbestos back to 4700–5000 BCE—nearly two thousand years earlier than commonly cited, and predating both the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge.

In Episode 2 of Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making, we separate archaeological fact from historical myth—correcting widespread misconceptions about ancient asbestos while tracing its journey from Stone Age pottery to medieval legend.

5 Ancient Asbestos Myths Exposed in This Episode:

  1. The origin date is wrong by 2,000 years — Peer-reviewed archaeology from Lake Saimaa, Finland reveals asbestos-tempered pottery dated to 4700–5000 BCE, not the commonly cited 2500 BCE. These vessels contained 50–90% mineral fiber content.
  2. Egyptian pharaohs were NOT wrapped in asbestos — Despite appearing in countless histories, zero archaeological evidence supports asbestos mummy wrappings. Biomolecular analyses confirm linen from flax plants, not mineral fibers.
  3. The salamander myth was a medieval invention — The Letter of Prester John (c. 1165), a famous forgery, introduced the false claim that asbestos was "salamander wool." This myth persisted 500+ years despite Marco Polo debunking it in 1280.
  4. "Asbestos" is technically the wrong word — The original Greek term was "amiantos" (meaning "undefiled"). "Asbestos" (meaning "unquenchable") originally described quicklime—Pliny the Elder's mistranslation stuck for 2,000 years.
  5. Benjamin Franklin perpetuated the salamander myth in the 1720s — Even during the Enlightenment, Franklin sold "salamander cotton" purses in London. Sir Thomas Browne's 1642 Pseudodoxia Epidemica had debunked the myth 80 years earlier.

Why Asbestos History Matters for Mesothelioma Families:

About This Series:

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making traces the complete history—from ancient wonder material to the largest corporate cover-up in American history. Subscribe to follow the full story.

Companion Podcast:

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano Mesothelioma Law Firm, a nationwide practice with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, the exposure happened somewhere—and Paul Danziger and Rod De Llano know how to trace it back. For a free consultation, visit https://dandell.com.

Resources:

→ Mesothelioma legal rights: https://dandell.com/mesothelioma/

→ Asbestos exposure sources: https://dandell.com/asbestos-exposure/

→ Asbestos trust funds ($30B+ available): https://dandell.com/asbestos-trust-funds/

→ Free case evaluation: https://dandell.com/contact/

Sister Podcast - MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast:

http://mesotheliomapodcast.com/

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making

Episode 2: Discovery & Wonder — The 7,000-Year Origin Story They Got Wrong

Published by Danziger & De Llano | Dandell.com

Key Takeaways

  • First known human use of asbestos: 4700–5000 BCE in Finland — approximately 2,000 years earlier than the commonly cited 2500 BCE date
  • Finnish Neolithic pottery from Lake Saimaa and Kierikkisaari contained 50–90% asbestos fiber content
  • Egyptian mummy wrapping myth: No archaeological evidence supports claims that pharaohs were wrapped in asbestos cloth
  • Salamander myth origin: The Letter of Prester John (c. 1165), a medieval forgery, created the false "salamander wool" legend — not ancient Greeks
  • Marco Polo debunked the salamander myth in 1280 after visiting a Chinese asbestos mine, but was ignored for centuries
  • Etymology correction: "Amiantos" (meaning "undefiled") was the original Greek term; "asbestos" originally described quicklime, not mineral fiber
  • Benjamin Franklin was still marketing "salamander cotton" purses in the 1720s — 80 years after Sir Thomas Browne's 1642 debunking

Episode Transcript

Introduction: 7,000 Years Before the Pyramids

HOST: Seven thousand years ago. Before the pyramids. Before Stonehenge. Before writing.

CO-HOST: That far back?

HOST: A potter in what's now Finland pulls stringy fibers from a rock. Mixes them into clay. Shapes a vessel. Fires it. And the pot doesn't crack.

CO-HOST: That's the discovery?

HOST: That's the moment. Someone figuring out that these strange stone fibers make ceramics stronger, thinner, more heat-resistant. Seven thousand years ago. And that discovery would ripple through human history — through empires, religions, and eventually, the deadliest corporate cover-up ever recorded.

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is sponsored by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm. Visit Dandell.com for a free consultation.

The Archaeological Evidence: Finnish Neolithic Pottery

HOST: So let's talk about what we actually know. The archaeology. Because a lot of what people think they know about ancient asbestos is wrong.

CO-HOST: Like what?

HOST: Like the date. You'll see "2500 BCE" everywhere. Even I said it last episode. But recent research pushes it back to 4700 BCE. Maybe 5000.

CO-HOST: Wait — that's two thousand years earlier.

HOST: Two thousand years. So when we say "4,500 years in the making" — we're being conservative. It might be closer to seven thousand.

CO-HOST: Where's the evidence?

HOST: Eastern Finland. Archaeological sites near Lake Saimaa, a place called Kierikkisaari. Pottery fragments. Thousands of them. And when you put them under a scanning electron microscope — asbestos fibers. Fifty to ninety percent of the material in some vessels.

CO-HOST: That's not accidental.

HOST: Not even close. These potters knew exactly what they were doing.

CO-HOST: What kind of asbestos?

HOST: Anthophyllite — one of the amphibole varieties of asbestos. The Saimaa region had surface deposits. You didn't have to mine it — you could literally pick it up off the ground.

CO-HOST: So what did it do for the pottery?

HOST: Made the walls thinner but stronger. About six millimeters thick — very thin for ancient pottery. And they could make vessels up to fifty centimeters in diameter. Heat resistant up to 900, maybe 1000 degrees Celsius.

CO-HOST: So they could put them directly in fire.

HOST: Some had drilled holes. Archaeologists think they might have been used as crucibles for early Bronze Age metalworking — melting copper and tin. The tradition continued for nearly five thousand years, until around 200 CE.

Myth #1: Egyptian Pharaohs Wrapped in Asbestos

CO-HOST: So that's the real origin. Finland, not Egypt.

HOST: Which brings us to one of the biggest myths. You'll read it everywhere: "Egyptian pharaohs were wrapped in asbestos cloth for mummification."

CO-HOST: That's not true?

HOST: There's no archaeological evidence. Zero. Modern analyses of Egyptian embalming practices — biomolecular studies, mass spectrometry — they find plant resins, bitumen, oils. But no asbestos. Egyptian mummies were wrapped in linen, from the flax plant.

CO-HOST: So where did the myth come from?

HOST: Probably conflation. The Greeks and Romans did use asbestos for cremation shrouds. If you're cremating royalty, you want the ashes pure — no wood ash mixed in. So you wrap the body in fireproof cloth first. The body burns, the shroud doesn't. You're left with just the deceased's remains.

CO-HOST: And someone mixed that up with Egyptian mummification.

HOST: Different cultures, different practices, different purposes. But the myth stuck.

CO-HOST: What about the "perpetual lamps" in the pyramids?

HOST: Another myth. "Asbestos wicks that burned for centuries in sealed tombs." But lamps need fuel. No fuel source, no flame. Doesn't matter how indestructible your wick is.

CO-HOST: Basic physics.

HOST: But it's a great story. And great stories survive.

Myth #2: The Salamander Wool Legend

CO-HOST: Speaking of great stories — salamanders.

HOST: This is my favorite myth because of how long it lasted. From roughly the 12th century to the 17th century. Five hundred years where educated Europeans believed asbestos was salamander wool — the skin of a fire lizard.

CO-HOST: Where did that come from? Ancient Greece?

HOST: Here's what's interesting. Aristotle wrote about fire-dwelling salamanders around 350 BCE. But he never connected salamanders to asbestos. That part came later.

CO-HOST: When?

HOST: The critical document is something called the Letter of Prester John.

CO-HOST: Who's Prester John?

HOST: Nobody. He didn't exist. It's a forgery. Around 1165, someone created a fake letter supposedly from a Christian priest-king in the East. A wildly popular medieval hoax, addressed to the Byzantine Emperor, describing a magical kingdom full of wonders.

CO-HOST: Including salamanders?

HOST: The letter describes worms called salamanders that "can only live in fire" and build cocoons — "like silkworms" — that are unwound and woven into cloth. Cloth that gets thrown into flames to be cleaned.

CO-HOST: That's asbestos. That's exactly what Pliny described.

HOST: Right. But now it's got a magical origin story. And it took off. Medieval natural histories started depicting salamanders as furry creatures —

CO-HOST: Furry?

HOST: Because "salamander's wool." If it's wool, the animal must have fur. Albertus Magnus, one of the great medieval scholars, called asbestos cloth "pluma salamandri" — salamander's plumage. By the 1500s, Conrad Gessner was drawing fuzzy salamanders in his encyclopedia of animals.

CO-HOST: Even though actual salamanders are smooth-skinned amphibians.

HOST: Nobody was checking.

Marco Polo's Debunking (That Nobody Believed)

CO-HOST: When did it finally get debunked?

HOST: Well, Marco Polo tried in 1280. He visited a Chinese asbestos mine, watched them process the mineral, wrote it all down.

CO-HOST: What did he say?

HOST: "The real truth is that the Salamander is no beast. It is a substance found in the earth." He even explained using medieval logic — "it can be no animal's nature to live in fire, seeing that every animal is composed of all the four elements."

CO-HOST: Fire, water, earth, air. Nothing made of those elements can survive in flames.

HOST: Exactly. But nobody listened. Marco Polo was already considered unreliable — too many fantastical stories.

CO-HOST: The boy who cried salamander.

HOST: So the myth continued. Three hundred years later, Benjamin Franklin was selling "salamander cotton" purses in London. In the 1720s. Enlightenment-era Europe. And the founding father of American science is still using the salamander marketing angle.

CO-HOST: Because it worked.

HOST: Because it worked. Science finally caught up with Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica in 1642 — a book debunking popular misconceptions. He wrote: "Nor is this Salamander's wool desumed from any Animal, but a Mineral substance metaphorically so called."

CO-HOST: Finally. Five hundred years after the Prester John letter. Four hundred years after Marco Polo.

HOST: The myth was just too good. Humans love a magical explanation.

The Etymology of "Asbestos" vs. "Amiantos"

CO-HOST: So what did the Greeks actually call it?

HOST: Two words. And this is where etymology gets interesting. The original Greek term was "amiantos" — from a-miaino, meaning "not defiled" or "unpolluted." Because it came out of fire unmarked. Clean. Pure.

CO-HOST: And "asbestos"?

HOST: Different word entirely. A-sbestos means "unquenchable." But here's the thing — the Greeks applied that word to quicklime, calcium oxide. Not the mineral fiber.

CO-HOST: So we've been using the wrong word for two thousand years.

HOST: Pliny the Elder mistranslated or conflated the terms when he wrote in Latin. The French still use "amiante." The Italians say "amianto." The original Greek term.

CO-HOST: And English went with the mistranslation.

HOST: History is messy.

What's Next: Sacred Fire and the Pliny Correction

CO-HOST: We've covered Finnish pottery, Egyptian myths, salamander legends, Greek etymology —

HOST: And we haven't even gotten to the Romans yet. The tablecloths. The sacred flames. The slaves.

CO-HOST: That's next episode.

HOST: Episode 3: Sacred Fire. When asbestos became divine — and deadly.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma — or any illness related to asbestos exposure — you deserve to know your options. Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is brought to you by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims. For a free consultation, visit Dandell.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was asbestos first used by humans?

The earliest confirmed human use of asbestos dates to approximately 4700–5000 BCE in Finland, where Neolithic potters mixed anthophyllite asbestos fibers into clay to create heat-resistant ceramics. This is nearly 2,000 years earlier than the commonly cited date of 2500 BCE. Archaeological evidence from Lake Saimaa and Kierikkisaari shows pottery containing 50–90% asbestos fiber content.

Were Egyptian pharaohs really wrapped in asbestos?

No. Despite appearing in many popular histories, there is no archaeological evidence that Egyptian mummies were wrapped in asbestos cloth. Biomolecular analyses of Egyptian embalming materials consistently identify linen (from flax plants), plant resins, bitumen, and oils — not mineral fibers. This myth likely arose from confusion with Greek and Roman cremation practices, which did use asbestos shrouds to keep royal ashes pure.

Where did the "salamander wool" myth come from?

The salamander-asbestos connection originated in the Letter of Prester John, a medieval forgery created around 1165 CE. The letter described fire-dwelling "worms" called salamanders that spun cocoons which could be woven into fireproof cloth. This was not an ancient Greek belief — Aristotle wrote about salamanders but never connected them to asbestos. The myth persisted for over 500 years despite Marco Polo debunking it in 1280.

Why is it called "asbestos" instead of "amiantos"?

"Amiantos" (meaning "undefiled" or "unpolluted") was the original Greek term for the mineral fiber. "Asbestos" (meaning "unquenchable") originally referred to quicklime, not the fibrous mineral. Pliny the Elder appears to have conflated or mistranslated the terms when writing in Latin, and the error persisted. Romance languages like French ("amiante") and Italian ("amianto") retained the original Greek term.

Did Benjamin Franklin really sell "salamander" products?

Yes. In the 1720s, Benjamin Franklin marketed fireproof purses in London using the term "salamander cotton" — despite Sir Thomas Browne having debunked the salamander myth in his 1642 book Pseudodoxia Epidemica. The salamander legend was simply more marketable than the geological truth.

Resources for Mesothelioma Families

About This Series

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making traces the complete history of asbestos — from Neolithic Finland to ancient Rome to the Industrial Revolution to the largest corporate cover-up in American history.

Produced by Danziger & De Llano, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience representing asbestos victims and their families. The firm has recovered nearly $2 billion in compensation for mesothelioma patients, veterans, and families affected by asbestos-related disease.

Companion Podcast: MESO: The Mesothelioma Podcast offers medical guidance, legal information, and survivor stories for families navigating a mesothelioma diagnosis.

© 2025 Danziger & De Llano. All rights reserved. For a free mesothelioma case evaluation, visit Dandell.com or call for a confidential consultation.