 The mineral beryl , which contains beryllium , has been used at least since the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt . In the first century CE , Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder mentioned in his encyclopedia Natural History that beryl and emerald ( " smaragdus " ) were similar . The Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis , written in the third or fourth century CE , contains notes on how to prepare artificial emerald and beryl . 
