where was arsenic discovered

Arsenic was first clearly prepared as a free element by Johann Schroeder, a German pharmacist, in 1649. However, the element itself was possibly first observed in the 13th century by Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great), who noted the appearance of a metal-like substance when heating arsenic compounds with soap around 1250 AD. Before these discoveries, arsenic compounds were known and used by ancient civilizations such as the early Chinese, Greeks, and Egyptians, but they did not recognize it as the pure element.