In addition to the test tube, the retort, wherein materials can be heated and mixed, and their products carefully controlled and extracted overtime, is an iconic symbol of chemistry and of alchemy. Chemistry has its origins in deep antiquity, where in primitive metallurgy, jewelry-making, brewing, cooking, and other activities craftspeople advanced knowledge of techniques and accumulated procedures and recipes. This valuable knowledge was kept secret, passed from master to student, and in its developed form became alchemy in the middle ages and renaissance.