The process of refining precious metals, especially silver and gold, by heating them in a specially designed cup called a cupel to remove impurities.
From 'cupel' (from Latin 'cupella,' a small cup) plus English '-ing' (present participle). Cupellation is an ancient metallurgical technique where metals are heated in a porous cup, allowing base metals to be absorbed while precious metals remain.
Ancient alchemists and gold refiners used cupellation for thousands of years—when you heat precious metal in a bone-ash cup in an extremely hot furnace, the impurities oxidize and get absorbed into the porous cupel, leaving pure gold or silver behind. It's so effective that modern jewelers still use it!
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