gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio, Rome, Roman gems, history of gemology, rings, jewelry, history of jewelry

Rings of the classical period; rings of the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and modern times; superb decorative rings.

gems, jade, jadeite, nephrite, axes, archaeology, archaeogemology, fei cui, pyroxene jade, amphibole jade, circumcision, stone knife

Belief in thunderstones left no trace among the writers of Classical Antiquity before Epicurus (341–280 BC); indeed, one might even say not before the beginning of the Christian era, and this is an important point. Homer, who is said to have lived around 850 BC, frequently sang of the wrath of Zeus and delighted in portraying him hurling thunderbolts; yet, despite so many favourable opportunities, he never made the slightest allusion to the material projectile itself, of which the Greeks would speak only much later. Anaximander of Miletus (610–547 BC), Heraclitus (c. 500 BC), and Aristotle (384–322 BC), all of whom discussed lightning at greater or lesser length, do not say a single word about the ceraunia, or thunderstone. All the scholars of Greece and ancient Italy, up to the dawn of the Christian era, knew that peoples living on the fringes of the civilised world still used stone tools and weapons. Moreover, they also knew that certain peoples who already employed bronze or iron continued to use stone for religious purposes. “The embalmers of Ancient Egypt opened corpses by making an incision with an Ethiopian stone (Herodotus II, 86), and tombs have yielded flint knives ([1]) that can hardly have differed from those used for this purpose. Zipporah, the wife of Moses, used a stone knife (ṣûr or ṣōr) to circumcise her son (Exodus 4:25). At Gilgal, Yahweh commanded Joshua to make stone knives in order to circumcise the Israelites (Joshua 5:2–3). According to an addition found in the Septuagint, these knives were later gathered and placed in his tomb (Joshua 21:40 and 24:30). It was with a sharp stone that the priests of Baal cut themselves in order to gain the favour of their god, and that the priests of Cybele inflicted dreadful mutilations upon themselves. Stone daggers formed part of the sacred equipment of temples; on all solemn occasions they were used to strike the sacrificial victim, as when the alliance between Alba and Rome was concluded. The same customs are said to have prevailed among the Carthaginians. Hannibal struck the sacrificial lamb upon the altar with a flint knife after his famous oath to Hasdrubal and before the Battle of the Ticinus, having struck the lamb with a flint stone, holding the flint in his right hand, and calling upon Jupiter and the other gods as witnesses while dashing the victim’s head against the stone.” Among the divine stones, many were thunderstones; this was undoubtedly the case in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, where a flint stone—the god himself, Iuppiter lapis, a representation of the thunderbolt—sanctioned oaths by its presence. “Thus religion, conservative of ancient customs, continued to make use, in the full Iron Age, of the misunderstood relics of a distant and forgotten past, preserving the unconscious tradition of the ancestors of the Stone Age. When this tradition had become almost completely obscured, people began to ask where these stone tools and weapons came from. The theories concerning the nature and origin of lightning proposed by scholars during the four centuries preceding the Christian era may have suggested the answer. Epicurus (341–280 BC) already expressed an opinion that points the way toward this belief.”

corundum, Burma.12, gems

This two-part account, condensed by David H. Howell from Winfield H. Scott’s American consular report completed in May 1935, surveys the history, geology, mining practices, trade, and economic prospects of Burma’s ruby industry, principally in the Mogok Stone Tract. The historical discussion distinguishes legendary accounts of early gem recovery from later records of royal control, taxation, compulsory labor, and restrictions on the movement and sale of stones. It traces the transition to British administration and the concession operated by Burma Ruby Mines, Ltd., describing changing arrangements for rents, royalties, and licenses, together with persistent problems of theft and smuggling. Mogok is identified as the principal mining and trading center within a tract covering approximately 600 square miles, with additional gem-producing localities noted elsewhere in Burma. The geological account describes gneisses, granulites, intrusive rocks, and associated crystalline limestones containing ruby, sapphire, and spinel, accompanied by numerous other minerals. The range of gem production includes star rubies and sapphires, tourmaline, zircon, garnet, aquamarine, chrysoberyl, and other ornamental materials. Traditional mining methods comprise narrow shafts and underground drifts, open hillside workings supplied with water through channels and bamboo pipes, deep excavations into hillsides and natural cavities, and recovery from dammed streams. Gem-bearing gravel, termed “byone,” is washed to remove lighter material, with gems retained in traps and subsequently collected by hand. Mechanized operations introduced large excavations, suction pipes, sluices, screening and washing plants, a drainage tunnel, and hydroelectric power. The account attributes the company’s decline to competition from synthetic gems, falling prices, the First World War, and the economic depression; voluntary liquidation began in December 1925, and its leases were surrendered in June 1931. Subsequent sections describe sealed transport of recovered stones, daylight sorting, grading by size and quality, and confidential bargaining through concealed finger signals. Burmese trade terms are listed for different grades, sizes, and optical varieties. Cutting and polishing practices include wooden laps charged with corundum, metal cutting discs, and polishing powders mixed with water and olive oil. Mining eligibility, ordinary and extraordinary licenses, illicit trading, and export certification are also discussed. The final assessment emphasizes the rarity of valuable large rubies, citing the 42-carat rough Peace Ruby, reportedly sold for £27,500. Although potentially productive ground remained beneath religious buildings and flooded workings, the report concludes that low average gravel values, taxation, labor costs, and substantial overheads left narrow profit margins even under favorable conditions.

gems, ancient gemology, early gemology, ancient mineralogy, glyptic, beads, beryl, emerald

The Septuagint, or Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX Interpretes, is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, traditionally attributed to seventy (or seventy-two) Jewish scholars in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE. This edition presents the Old Testament text in its Greek form, preserving the linguistic and textual heritage that significantly influenced early Jewish and Christian traditions. It is a foundational text for biblical studies, particularly for understanding the development of the Hebrew Bible, its reception in the Hellenistic world, and its use in early Christianity, where it often served as the primary scriptural source.

ruby, sapphire, corundum, Mogok, Burma.12, gems

An illustrated travel account of Burma combining descriptions of its landscapes, peoples, history, religious traditions and principal towns with journeys through the Shan, Kachin, Karen and Chin hills. Of particular gemological interest are chapters VI, “The Ruby Mines” (pp. 50–57), and VII, “Mogok” (pp. 58–64). Enriquez describes the journey from Thabeikkyin to Mogok, the town’s setting and markets, and gem trading through concealed finger-pressure bargaining. He outlines the occurrence of rubies in marble and their concentration in gem-bearing gravels (byon), emphasizing the continuation of local mining after the Burma Ruby Mines Company ceased operations. Mining descriptions distinguish twin shafts, inn pits, myaw trenches and hazardous lu workings in underground fissures and caverns, together with women’s customary rights to recover stones from discarded gravels and streams (kaneze). Historical passages discuss royal control of the mines, Kyatpyin, the region’s connections with the Shan States, and traditions concerning the Ngamauk, Kala Byan and Peace rubies. The account also records mining taboos and the diverse communities supporting the gem industry. A useful period description of Mogok’s mining practices and social setting, combining contemporary observations with historical traditions and speculation.

gems, ancient gemology, early gemology, ancient mineralogy, glyptic, beads, geography, history

The book highlights the growth of Greek geographic knowledge and thought to Graeco-Roman geography. Examples of Physical and Political Geography, Cosmology, Mathematical Geography and Cartography.

jade, jadeite, fei cui, nephrite, Burma, China, gems

This article surveys jade’s physical characteristics, sources, cultural associations, manufacture, valuation, and ornamental uses, while promoting it as a suitable Mother’s Day gift. It distinguishes nephrite from fei cui, describing nephrite as a compact aggregate of minute fibrous amphibole crystals whose exceptional toughness exceeds that of the more granular fei cui. Fei cui is presented as harder, heavier, and more refractive than nephrite, while dark green to black material termed chloromelanite is associated with increased iron content. The principal source of fei cui is identified as the Mogaung district of Upper Burma, whereas nephrite is reported from the Karakash Valley in Turkestan, China, Siberia, New Zealand, and other localities. Guangzhou and Beijing are described as important trading and carving centers, although the author cautions that the finest pieces seldom appear openly in tourist shops and that inexperienced visitors may pay excessive prices. Historical discussion connects the names jade and nephrite with beliefs concerning their ability to remedy kidney or loin disorders, and recounts the esteem accorded jade by the Aztecs, Māori, and other peoples who fashioned it into tools and weapons. Particular attention is given to Chinese traditions, including jade’s association with charity, modesty, courage, justice, wisdom, constancy, happiness, and longevity. The article also describes its use in musical instruments and burial customs, together with collectors’ appreciation of rust-colored archaeological pieces, whose appearance was sometimes imitated artificially. Traditional manufacture involves sawing with wire and an abrasive, usually powdered corundum, followed by hand carving and polishing. Carved motifs are assigned symbolic meanings, including the bat for happiness and the butterfly for immortality. The color discussion encompasses numerous greens, white, yellow, brown, lavender, and bluish lavender. The author contrasts Chinese appreciation of “mutton-fat” white material with American preference for emerald-green fei cui, and questions reports of genuinely blood-red jade. Dark inclusions and uneven coloration are said to diminish value, although skilled carvers incorporate contrasting areas into their designs. Fine, flawless, uniformly colored material fashioned as a simple cabochon is considered more valuable than pierced carving. Uses include earrings, brooches, rings, snuff bottles, vases, bowls, belt buckles, and dress clasps. The concluding passages encourage collecting and repeated gifts of jade, emphasizing its durability, varied appearance, cultural significance, and availability across a broad range of prices.

gems, jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs, archaeology, history, archaeogemology, Pre-Columbian jade; Costa Rica; Maya; exchange; iconography, lapidary, Piedras Negras

Prized by the ancient peoples of Mexico and Central America, jade was regarded as even more precious than gold (see “Native American Jades,” Museum Journal, March 1927). Although the source of Mexican jade had never been determined, there was no question that it was native, since it was considered mineralogically distinct from Asiatic jade, and jade ornaments were demanded in tribute by the Aztecs from certain regions of southern Mexico. Jade is a generic term that includes two chemically distinct species, jadeite and nephrite. Ornaments made from both stones are found in the Americas, but Mexican jade was believed to be jadeite and almost certainly a product of the highlands. The Maya of the Early Empire were unfamiliar with gold but apparently prized jade above all other materials, carving it into ornaments displaying their characteristic artistic style. This was a remarkable achievement for a people without metal tools, since jade is harder than steel. The jade ornaments of important individuals were buried with them, often placed in the mouth in a manner comparable to the Greek obolus; for this reason many Maya jades have been recovered through excavation. A large number of jade ornaments were discovered by the Eldridge R. Johnson Expedition at the Maya city of Piedras Negras, usually in ceremonial caches placed in pottery vessels beneath temple floors, although these examples were generally of relatively poor-quality jade. During one season, however, a burial vault containing the remains of a young man of evidently high rank was uncovered. Buried with him were approximately thirty ornaments of exceptionally fine, translucent apple-green jade, together with numerous carved heads. In accordance with the expedition’s agreement with the Guatemalan government, half of the objects were sent to Guatemala, while most of the remaining half was retained by the museum. Many of the ornaments occurred in pairs, allowing a nearly equal division. Only three outstanding objects were unique: a jaguar-head pendant retained by the museum, a human-figure pendant sent to Guatemala, and a large scalloped ring that remained in the museum collection. The human figure was probably originally worn as a pendant, although its position suggested that it may have been placed in the mouth according to Maya mortuary custom. The jaguar head, found face down beneath the body, was probably a back ornament. Carved in profile and in relatively high relief, it has a perfectly flat reverse bearing seven blocks of incised hieroglyphs, one of the very few known inscriptions on jade, though its meaning remained undeciphered. On the chest were found the scalloped ring, badly broken and unrestored, and two long rectangular beads, one measuring four inches in length and drilled throughout. On either side of the skull lay large quasi-circular ornaments with short tenons on the reverse, probably inserted into the earlobes as ear ornaments. Around the forehead were twenty small ornaments of the finest jade. Although apparently strung together as a fillet, their form resembles that of ear plugs, and the fact that they consist of ten pairs of slightly different shapes suggests that they were originally ear ornaments later reused as a headband.

gems, lapis lazuli, history of gem use, pigments, art

Cennini’s practical handbook presents detailed instructions for the materials and techniques of the painter and craftsman, including drawing, preparation and use of colors, fresco and oil painting, glues and cements, panel painting, gilding, illumination, work on cloth and glass, mosaic, and casting. Particular attention is given to mineral pigments, including azurite, malachite, vermilion, and ultramarine, with descriptions of their preparation, grinding, properties, and appropriate uses. Ultramarine is praised as the finest of colors and its preparation is described in considerable detail. Of particular gemological interest is Cennini’s discussion of stones used for burnishing gold: hematite is recommended, but sapphire, emerald, balas ruby, topaz, ruby, and garnet are said to be even better, with the choicer stones preferred. Thompson’s translation is based on his revised Italian text and attempts to render Cennini’s technical vocabulary in terminology useful to modern practicing artists and craftsmen.

gems, ancient gemology, ancient jewelry, early metallurgy, India, Indus, green stones, green grossular, hydrogrossular, jade

Hitherto it has commonly been supposed that the pre-Aryan peoples of India were on an altogether lower plane of civilization than their Aryan conquerors; that to the latter they were much what the Helots were to the Spartans, or the Slavs to their Byzantine overlords—a race so servile and degraded, that they were commonly known as Dasas or slaves. The picture of them gleaned from the Hymns of the Rigveda was that of black skinned, flat-nosed barbarians, as different from the fair Aryans in physical aspect as they were in speech and religion, though at the same time it was evident that they must have been rich in cattle, good fighters, and possessed of many forts in which they defended themselves against the invaders. These “forts”, however, were explained by Vedic scholars as being no more than occasional places of refuge—simple earthworks, that is to say, surrounded, may be, by palisades or rough stone walls; for, seeing that the Aryans themselves were still in the village State and that their society was in other respects correspondingly primitive, it was deemed impossible that the older races of India—the contemptible, outcast Dasas—could already have been living in well-built cities or fortresses, or in other respects have attained to a higher state of culture. Mentally, physically, socially, and religiously, their inferiority to their conquerors was taken for granted, and little or no credit was given them for the achievements of Indian civilization. Never for a moment was it imagined that five thousand years ago, before ever the Aryans were heard of, the Panjab and Sind, if not other parts of India as well, were enjoying an advanced and singularly uniform civilization of their own, closely akin but in some respects even superior to that of contemporary Mesopotamia and Egypt. Yet this is what the discoveries at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro have now placed beyond question. They exhibit the Indus peoples of the fourth and third millennia B.C., in possession of a highly developed culture in which no vestige of Indo-Aryan influence is to be found. Like the rest of Western Asia, the Indus country is still in the Chalcolithic Age—that age in which arms and utensils of stone continue to be used side by side with those of copper or bronze. Their society is organized in cities; their wealth derived mainly from agriculture and trade, which appears to have extended far and wide in all directions. They cultivate wheat and barley as well as the date palm. They have domesticated the humped zebu, buffalo, and short-horned bull, besides the sheep, pig, dog, elephant, and camel; but the cat and probably the horse are unknown to them. For transport they have wheeled vehicles, to which oxen doubtless were yoked. They are skilful metal workers, with a plentiful supply of gold, silver, and copper. Lead, too, and tin are in use, but the latter only as an alloy in the making of bronze. With spinning and weaving they are thoroughly conversant. Their weapons of war and of the chase are the bow and arrow, spear, axe, dagger, and mace. The sword they have not yet evolved; nor is there any evidence of defensive body armour. Among their other implements, hatchets, sickles, saws, chisels, and razors are made of both copper and bronze; knives and celts sometimes of these metals, sometimes of chert or other hard stones. For the crushing of grain they have the muller and saddle-quern but not the circular grindstone. Their domestic vessels are commonly of earthenware turned on the wheel and not infrequently painted with encaustic designs; more rarely they are of copper, bronze, or silver. The ornaments of the rich are made of the precious metals or of copper, sometimes overlaid with gold, of faience, ivory, carnelian, and other stones; for the poor, they are usually of shell or terra-cotta. Figurines and toys, for which there is a wide vogue, are of terra-cotta, and shell and faience are freely used, as they are in Sumer and the West generally, not only for personal ornaments but for inlay work and other purposes. With the invention of writing the Indus peoples are also familiar, and employ for this purpose a form of script which, though peculiar to India, is evidently analogous to other contemporary scripts of Western Asia and the Nearer East.