Scientists know ammonia as:
Ancient Egyptians also knew ammonia with their own, equally complex symbols:
Well, in a manner of speaking. Or writing. The story of the word ammonia is one of modern science and ancient history – and of camel dung and supreme deities.
Ammonia
Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman coined ammonia in 1782 when he identified the substance as the gas that can be obtained from sal ammoniac. Previously, ammonia was called spirit of hartshorn in English, as it was distilled from the nitrogen-laden horns and hooves of animals, which is much more pleasant than other sources of the chemical.
Literally meaning “salt of Ammon,” sal ammoniac is a crystalline salt which was once derived from the dung of camels, apparently. (And you thought ammonia smelled bad.) Ancient Libya had a shrine to Jupiter Ammon. Worshippers would hitch their camels to pay their respects as they passed through the area, known as Ammonia. Meanwhile, their camels would pour their own libations: chemically rich excrement. Enterprising, and adventurous, individuals collected the soiled sands to produce sal ammoniac.
Following their conquest of Northern Africa, the Romans mapped their king of the gods, Jupiter, onto an Egyptian supreme deity, Amun. The Greeks rendered Amun as Ammon, which the Romans adapted for Jupiter Ammon.
Amun was often depicted with a ram’s horn, which paleontologists later thought resembled the spiraling shells of an extinct mollusk, the ammonite. The name Amun, whose hieroglyph is featured above, may derive from a word meaning “invisible” or “hidden” – not unlike the very gas in which his name surprisingly lives on.
Mashed Radish 
Fascinating! There’s probably scope for a long article – if not a book! – about the uses of ancient gods’ names in different languages. There must be hundreds of them – volcano, Wednesday, panic, jovial and venereal spring to mind.
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Ham, hammer, cane, cannabis, cannibal, canine, cocaine, candy, con, cone, swastika, sin, cinnabar, cinnamon (Sin Amon), moon, shive, shiver, China, Canada, genie, shine, shenanigans, Shanghai, change, chance, chengole, Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday…
Probably thousands more.
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Hamburger, Hamburg, amber, Hambergen, Hambrucken, Hambuhren, Hamm, Hammelburg, Hammenkein, Hamelin, Caen….
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Cincinnati. There are probably a lot of place names in the Americas named for ancient gods (including Canada, which was Kanata), names given by ancient people who arrived by boat from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
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King…
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Gentile.
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How many people driving Mazda cars have a clue as to the origin of the name?
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Mas da, gives more. As opposed to the Nova, no va, doesn’t go.
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What was ammonia used for in ancient times?
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Fertilizer for sure as it is used today but I believe it was used as a power source as well. This is something we are almost able to do now in the Haber-Bosch process but I’d imagine not as well as the ancients.
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The name of the pagan deity “Amun” is rooted in the name of the ancient deity Ham, Hammon, Hamyr, Hammar, Hamas, Hannah, Han, Hen, Hun, Hunkapu, Khan, Caen, and Canaan. This deity may have had origins in Herxheim Germany among ancient people who were practicing ritual human sacrifice and cannibalism 7,000 years ago. This would explain why so many German cities are named for this ancient pagan deity “Ham”.
This deity is a destructive moon god, which gave us the word “moon” from Amun. This deity is still recognized in prayers to an ancient deity which are ended with the name of the deity “Amen”.
The descendants of ancient pagans migrated by boat from Northwestern Europe into the Mediterranean, then throughout the world, spreading the symbol of the swastika (the “Mark of Cain”), dolmen construction, paganism, human sacrifice, slavery, and warfare. These nomadic people who traveled by boat are the foundation of the Biblical story of the brothers Cain and Abel, the story of Noah and his descendants Ham and Canaan, and the story of the brothers Jacob and Esau.
These stories of opposing twin brothers led to the Indo-European tradition of twin heroes that include the founders of Rome (Romulus and Remus) and the Mayan twin heroes (Hunkapu and Xbalenque) among ancient people who used the symbol of the swastika, who spread inherited nobility, human sacrifice, slavery, and warfare, who traveled throughout the entire ancient world by boat.
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Helllo mate great blog post
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