The first references to asphalt relate to the Dead Sea. It comes from this way, is blank, heavy and stinking. Most of the early uses of the word are from translations. One early English poem called Cleanness also refers to the Dead Sea as the source of asphalt. In the deeply religious work the Dead Sea is described as a stinking lake which throws up asphalt.
There is a very similar reference in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville where again it is the Dead Sea which throws out something from the water which is called asphalt. John Trevisa in famous translation refers also to the Holy land as “earth of black colour” which stinks.
The first reference to asphalt actually being useful in any way is again in translation, of Machievelli’s Art of War. It came out in an English translation by Peter Whitehorne, a soldier who fought in the army of the Hold Roman Emperor Charles V against the Turks.
But it was only some 400 years later that asphalt really was used in industrial applications. Key uses are were and are waterproofing, building roads and photography.
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