The discoveries of the 118 chemical elements known to exist as of 2026 are presented here in chronological order. The elements are listed generally in the order in which each was first defined as the pure element, as the exact date of discovery of most elements cannot be accurately determined. There are plans to synthesize more elements, and it is not known how many elements are possible.
Each element's name, atomic number, year of first report, name of the discoverer, and notes related to the discovery are listed.
Periodic table of elements Periodic table by era of discovery 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Group → ↓ Period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 colspan="4" colspan="4"
Graphical timeline
Cumulative diagram
Pre-modern and early modern discoveries
Z ElementEarliest useOldest existing sample Discoverer(s) Place of oldest sample Notes 79 Gold40000 BC4600 BC – 4200 BC Earliest humans Varna Necropolis Small amounts of natural gold have been found in Spanish caves used during the late Paleolithic period, . The earliest gold artifacts dating to 4600 BC to 4200 BC were discovered at the site of Varna Necropolis, Bulgaria. Recognised as an element by Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy in 1787. 6 Carbon26000 BC26000 BC Earliest humans Charcoal and soot were known to the earliest humans, with the oldest known charcoal paintings dating to about 28000 years ago, e.g. Gabarnmung in Australia. The earliest known industrial use of charcoal was for the reduction of copper, zinc, and tin ores in the manufacture of bronze, by the Egyptians and Sumerians. Diamonds were probably known as early as 2500 BC. True chemical analyses were made in the 18th century, and in 1772 Antoine Lavoisier demonstrated that diamond, graphite, and charcoal are all composed of the same substance. In 1787, de Morveau, Fourcroy, and Lavoisier listed carbon (in French, carbone) as an element, distinguishing it from coal (in French, charbon). 29 Copper9000 BC6000 BC Middle East Asia Minor It was originally obtained as a native metal and later from the smelting of ores. Earliest estimates of the discovery of copper suggest around 9000 BC in the Middle East. It was one of the most important materials to humans throughout the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. Copper beads dating from 6000 BC have been found in Çatalhöyük, Anatolia and the archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the world's oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BC. Recognised as an element by Louis Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude Berthollet, and Antoine-François de Fourcroy in 1787. 82 Lead7000 BC3800 BC Asia Minor Abydos, Egypt It is believed that lead smelting began at least 9,000 years ago, and the oldest known artifact of lead is a statuette found at the temple of Osiris on the site of Abydos dated around 3800 BC. Recognised as an element by Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy in 1787. 47 SilverBefore 5000 BCca. 4000 BC Asia Minor Asia Minor Estimated to have been discovered in Asia Minor shortly after copper and gold. Recognised as an element by Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy in 1787. 26 IronBefore 5000 BC4000 BC Middle East Egypt There is evidence that iron was known from before 5000 BC. The oldest known iron objects used by humans are some beads of meteoric iron, made in Egypt in about 4000 BC. The discovery of smelting around 3000 BC led to the start of the Iron Age around 1200 BC and the prominent use of iron for tools and weapons. Recognised as an element by Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy in 1787. 50 Tin3500 BC2000 BC Asia Minor Kestel First smelted in combination with copper around 3500 BC to produce bronze (and thus giving place to the Bronze Age in those places where Iron Age did not intrude directly on Neolithic of the Stone Age). Kestel, in southern Turkey, is the site of an ancient Cassiterite mine that was used from 3250 to 1800 BC. The oldest artifacts date from around 2000 BC. Recognised as an element by Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy in 1787. 51 Antimony3000 BC3000 BC Sumerians Middle East An artifact, said to be part of a vase, made of very pure antimony dating to about 3000 BC was found at Telloh, Chaldea (part of present-day Iraq). Dioscorides and Pliny both describe the accidental production of metallic antimony from stibnite, but only seem to recognize the metal as lead. The intentional isolation of antimony is described in the works attributed to the Muslim alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (–950). In Europe, the metal was being produced and used by 1540, when it was described by Vannoccio Biringuccio. Described again by Georgius Agricola De re metallica in 1556. Probably first recognised as an element by Lavoisier in 1787. 16 SulfurBefore 2000 BC Middle East Middle East First used at least 4,000 years ago. According to the Ebers Papyrus, a sulfur ointment was used in ancient Egypt to treat granular eyelids. (The Ebers papyrus was written c. 1550 BC, but is believed to have been copied from earlier texts.) Designated as one of the two elements of which all metals are composed in the sulfur-mercury theory of metals, first described in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's Sirr al-khaliqa ('Secret of Creation') and in the works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (both 8th or 9th century). vol. II, p. 1, note 1; p. 199. On the dating and historical background of the Sirr al-khalīqa, see Kraus 1942−1943, vol. II, pp. 270–303; Weisser 1980, pp. 39–72. On the dating of the writings attributed to Jābir, see Kraus 1942−1943, vol. I, pp. xvii–lxv. A more detailed and speculative account of the sulfur-mercury theory of metals is given by Designated as a universal element (one of the tria prima) by Paracelsus in the early 16th century. Recognized as an element by Lavoisier in 1777, which was supported by John Dalton in 1808 and confirmed by Joseph Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard in 1810. 80 Mercury1500 BC1500 BC Egyptians Egypt Cinnabar (the most common mineral form of mercury(II) sulfide, HgS) was used as a pigment from prehistory, dating as far back as the 9th millennium BC in the Middle East. Cinnabar deposits in Turkey, exploited from 8000 years ago, also contain minor amounts of mercury metal. Found in Egyptian tombs dating from 1500 BC. Recognised as an element, first by medieval alchemists, and later by Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy in 1787. 30 ZincBefore 1000 BC1000 BC Indian metallurgists Indian subcontinent Used as a component of brass since antiquity (before 1000 BC) by Indian metallurgists, but its true nature was not generally understood in ancient times. A 4th century BC vase from Taxila is made of brass with a zinc content of 34%, too high to be produced by cementation, providing strong evidence that metallic zinc was known in India by the 4th century BC. Zinc smelting was done in China and India around 1300. Identified as a distinct metal in the Rasaratna Samuccaya around the 14th century CECraddock, P. T. et al. (1983), "Zinc production in medieval India", World Archaeology 15 (2), Industrial Archaeology, p. 13 and by the alchemist Paracelsus in 1526, who gave it its present name and described it as a new metal. P. M. de Respour isolated it from zinc oxide in 1668; the first detailed documentation of zinc isolation was given by Andreas Sigismund Marggraf in 1746. 78 Platinumc. 600 BC – AD 200c. 600 BC – AD 200 Pre-Columbian South Americans South America Used by pre-Columbian Americans near modern-day Esmeraldas, Ecuador to produce artifacts of a white gold-platinum alloy, although precise dating is difficult. A small box from the burial of the Pharaoh Shepenupet II (died around 650 BC) was found to be decorated with gold-platinum hieroglyphics, but the Egyptians may not have recognised that there was platinum in their gold. First European description of a metal found in South American gold was in 1557 by Julius Caesar Scaliger. Antonio de Ulloa was on an expedition to Peru in 1735, where he observed the metal; he published his findings in 1748. Charles Wood also investigated the metal in 1741. First reference to it as a new metal was made by William Brownrigg in 1750. 33 Arsenicc. AD 300c. AD 300 Egyptians Middle East The use of metallic arsenic was described by the Egyptian alchemist Zosimos. The purification of arsenic was later described in the works attributed to the Muslim alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (–950). vol. I, p. 532: "We find in them [sc. the works attributed to Jabir] [...] preparation of various substances (, basic lead carbonate; arsenic and antimony from their sulphides)." On the dating of the writings attributed to Jabir, see . Albertus Magnus (–1280) is typically credited with the description of the metal in the West, though some question his work and instead credit Vannoccio Biringuccio, whose De la pirotechnia (1540) distinguishes orpiment from crystalline arsenic. The first to unquestionably have prepared metallic arsenic was Johann Schröder in 1641. Recognised as an element after Lavoisier's definition in 1787. 83 BismuthBismuth - Royal Society of Chemistry European alchemists and Inca civilisation Europe and South America Bismuth was known since ancient times, but often confused with tin and lead, which are chemically similar. The Incas used bismuth (along with the usual copper and tin) in a special bronze alloy for knives, likely intentionally. Agricola (1530 and 1546) states that bismuth is a distinct metal in a family of metals including tin and lead. This was based on observation of the metals and their physical properties. Miners in the age of alchemy also gave bismuth the name , or "silver being made" in the sense of silver still in the process of being formed within the Earth. See also for other terms for bismuth, including stannum glaciale (glacial tin or ice-tin). Beginning with Johann Heinrich Pott in 1738, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, and Torbern Olof Bergman, the distinctness of lead and bismuth became clear, and Claude François Geoffroy demonstrated in 1753 that this metal is distinct from lead and tin.
Modern discoveries For 18th-century discoveries, around the time that Antoine Lavoisier first questioned the phlogiston theory, the recognition of a new "earth" has been regarded as being equivalent to the discovery of a new element (as was the general practice then). For some elements (e.g. Be, B, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Mn, Co, Ni, Zr, Mo), this presents further difficulties as their compounded forms were widely known since medieval or even ancient times, even though the elements as "elemental" constituents of those compounds were not. Since the true nature of those compounds was sometimes only gradually discovered, it is sometimes very difficult to name one specific discoverer. In such cases the first publication on their chemistry is noted, and a longer explanation given in the notes.