Editing Alps (section)

== Minerals ==
The Alps are a source of minerals that have been mined for thousands of years. In the 8th to 6th centuries, BC during the [[Hallstatt culture]], Celtic tribes mined copper; later the Romans mined gold for coins in the [[Bad Gastein]] area. [[Erzberg]] in [[Styria]] furnishes high-quality iron ore for the steel industry. Crystals, such as [[cinnabar]], [[amethyst]], and [[quartz]], are found throughout much of the Alpine region. The cinnabar deposits in Slovenia are a notable source of cinnabar pigments.<ref>Shoumatoff (2001), 49–53</ref>

Alpine crystals have been studied and collected for hundreds of years and began to be classified in the 18th century. [[Leonhard Euler]] studied the shapes of crystals, and by the 19th-century crystal hunting was common in Alpine regions. David Friedrich Wiser amassed a collection of 8000 crystals that he studied and documented. In the 20th century Robert Parker wrote a well-known work about the rock crystals of the Swiss Alps; at the same period a commission was established to control and standardize the naming of Alpine minerals.<ref>Roth, 10–17</ref>