gems, beryl, aquamarine, pegmatite, Brazil

Beryl samples from Mendonça pegmatite, located in the district of Berilândia, Quixeramobim‐CE, were analyzed. This pegmatite, belonging to the Pegmatitic District of Solonópole‐Banabuiú (DPSB), is located in the center‐west portion of the State of Ceará, and embedded in the paragneiss basement of the Borborema Province, Ceará Central Domain. It is a pegmatite type mixed, differentiated, complexed, little fertile, and its mineralogy presents industrial and gem minerals composition variety, among which, aquamarine, a variety of the beryl group that occurs in blue and green colors, is the focus of this work. The highest concentrations of industrial beryl occur forming pockets. The aquamarine does not occur forming isolated crystals, but rather as dispersed cores and included in the crystals of industrial beryl. A crystallochemical, mineralogical and gemological characterization of blue and green beryls was carried out, where their intrinsic characteristics were analyzed, from the most basic, such as physical properties, to more advanced ones, such as crystalline structure, unit cell parameters, fluid components (H₂O types I, II and III, CO₂, CH₄), chromophore elements / color causes, chemical composition, as well as the presence and nature of impurities, and substitutions in its structure. The methodology used in its characterization was refractometer, hydrostatic balance, optical and gemological microscopes, single‐crystal and powder X‐ray diffraction (DRX), micro energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence (EDXRF), molecular absorption spectroscopy in the infrared region by Fourier transform (FTIR), molecular absorption spectroscopy in the ultraviolet‐visible‐near infrared region (UV‐Vis‐NIR) and Raman spectroscopy. According to the substitutions in its crystalline structure, it was possible to verify the presence of fluid components of H₂O type I, II, III and CO₂, and the data necessary to determine the polytypes of beryl. Bands attributed to chromophores as well as their ionic charge and positions were also demonstrated. In the chemical compositional analysis, alkaline elements such as Cs, Rb and Na were detected in the channels. The presence of iron as a chromophore element in the beryl structure, resulting in its blue coloration, allows us to call blue beryl samples aquamarines, even if they do not present an ideal gemological quality for market standards.

gems, corundum, inclusions.5, E. Billie Hughes, Lotus Gemology

Today women are playing an integral role in the jewellery and gemstone industry from the store front to the laboratory. Here we look at the women who are making a difference.

gems, jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs, archaeology, history, archaeogemology, China

Jade is a unique stone. Its exquisite range of colours, hardness and durability, transparency and delicate lustre, together with its acoustic qualities, led it to embody, in the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica and Asia, human and cultural values intrinsic to those societies. For a time considered more precious than gold or silver, it has throughout human history been attributed with mystical and magical powers, as well as curative properties. In China, for example, it was associated with longevity and even immortality, while in Europe it was regarded as an effective remedy for kidney ailments. Through an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective, this publication brings together eleven studies on various aspects related to this material: geochemical and archaeometric analyses, experimental archaeology projects, and anthropological investigations that together provide a broad panorama of the sociocultural significance and the profound symbolic and ideological connotations that jade and other green stones have held in various regions of ancient Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, China, and Korea.

gems, jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs, archaeology, history, archaeogemology, Sahagun, codices, codex

This thesis examines the illustrations of jade in Book XI of the twelve volume, sixteenth century Colonial Mexican manuscript, The Florentine Codex, or the Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España. The book, a project led by Franciscan monk, Bernardino de Sahagún, records the Nahua world. These pictures of jade do not appear similar to most of the images contained within Book XI, as these are uncolored and use a different model to depict jade. By examining the individual elements of these pictures and the models used for this book and its illustrations, the jade images present a unique insight into the role of jade and stone in sixteenth-century Mexico. Sahagún was commissioned by the Franciscan Order to create a manuscript that could be used as a dictionary to aid the friars in communication and religious conversion with the native population of Central Mexico. He used native assistants trained at the mendicant school in Tlatelolco, where he had taught. By the end of the project, Sahagún was facing pressure from Spanish church and royal officials to end his research on the Nahua culture due to its recording of a pagan religion. The project was hurried and some illustrations had to be rushed. These jade illustrations show the effects of the rush. The artists had to create images that depicted the stone’s appearance without paint. They achieved this task by relying on the pre-Hispanic pictorial tradition. By depicting each jade stone’s appearance in symbolic forms, the illustrators represented both the stone’s physical appearance and metaphorical associations. The three jades—quetzalitztli, quetzalchalchiuitl, and chalchiuitl—distinguish how Nahua society valued differing characteristics of these stones. Importantly, the color of these stones created value and symbolic significance. The illustrations of jade provide a window into the sixteenth-century Aztec epistemology of color. The artists also used previous models from earlier and contemporary natural histories. By combining European and pre-Hispanic pictorial traditions, the illustrators create unique works that aligns best with Sahagún’s goal to produce a book for friars to understand the vocabulary of the native population. These illustrations of jade should be considered as a third text to the Spanish and transliterated Nahuatl, as they best reveal jade’s place within Nahua culture and how metaphors were created and used in Nahua rhetoric.

gems, magical gems, history of gemology, ancient gems, gem lore, gems and healing, medicinal use

Whether called emerald, jasper, agate, onyx, or anthracite… stones have a long history and, since Antiquity, have fired the imagination, nourishing beliefs, legends, and superstitions. Considered to be inhabited by sacred powers, they protect against accidents, envy, and witchcraft; they grant invisibility and the gift of tongues; they help fulfill wishes, predict the future, enhance memory, and cure illnesses… As for treatment, it may be done through application or rubbing, by grinding into powder to make a potion, or by wearing as a bracelet, ring, or pendant. Continuing his work on the supernatural, Claude Lecouteux, in this richly illustrated dictionary, has consulted many lapidaries—pagan, Christian, Gnostic…—and thus offers us a masterful synthesis at the crossroads of the history of mentalities, religions, and mysticism.

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

This volume, the third in a series of catalogues of Pre-Columbian art at Dumbarton Oaks, presents the outstanding collection of Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, and Classic Veracruz sculpture, jewelry, and painting. Four leading scholars present essays on the ancient art and archaeology of Mexico’s Central Highlands, Southwestern Highlands, and Gulf Lowlands as well as extensive catalogue entries of over one hundred objects of jade, shell, fine ceramics, wood, and other materials. The catalogue is richly illustrated with color plates, comparative illustrations, and diagrams presented as black-and-white figures. This catalogue will be an important and enduring reference for scholars and students, as well as an attractive volume for admirers of Pre-Columbian art.

gems, early lapidaries, early gemology, early mineralogy, Albertus Magnus, Philippe de Thaon, Jean de Mandeville, Middle Ages, medieval, medicine, Bible, magic, symbolism, beastiary

Treatises on precious stones, lapidaries catalogue and describe gems, then present their medicinal and magical virtues. The emerald heals vision; the sapphire enables escape from prison; the diamond, like the sapphire, is the stone of love; the carbuncle, which is born in the head of the dragon, shines with a dazzling brilliance, and so on. From the lapidary of Philippe de Thaon to that of Jean de Mandeville, these little-known texts open a window into the world of the marvelous, while shedding light on medieval encyclopedism. These treatises on precious stones present the inventory of the jewels and their medical and magical qualities. This volume gives the translation of five treatises dating from the 12th to the 14th century, thus giving access to these difficult texts so that their importance for the history of science and for social history of mentalities may be appreciated.

gems, feldspar, labradorite, moonstone, sunstone, Oregon, amazonite, spectrolite, andesine, orthoclase

Named for one of the most distinguished and influential figures in gemology and mineralogy, The Sinkankas Symposium is an annual one-day event featuring presentations by noted specialists working in diverse gem-related disciplines or occupations. The theme of the Eighth Annual Sinkankas Symposium was Gem Feldspars. The Sinkankas Symposium has been described as the most important gemological conference in North America by respected authorities on gemstones. Organized by Roger Merk, the annual event is co-sponsored by the San Diego Mineral & Gem Society and GIA (Gemological Institute of America), which has provided the Sinkankas Symposium venue for the past eight years. Bill Larson has been a generous supporter and lively speaker at the event since its inception. The 2010 Sinkankas Symposium on Gem Feldspars was held on April 17, 2010, at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Carlsbad, California. Ten speakers presented eleven lectures to an audience of 150 attendees. Highlights from the program included recent gemological and analytical research on Chinese andesine presented by Shane McClure, Director of the West Coast Identification Services at GIA laboratory in Carlsbad, CA, and Dr. George Rossman, Professor of Mineralogy in the Division of Geology and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.

gems, beryl, emerald, Egypt, Cleopatra, emerald geology, archaeology, ancient gemology, ancient mineralogy

An important study not only of the geological structure of Egypt and the mineral composition of its rocks, but also of ancient Egyptian stone quarries. Illustrated with almost 500 photographs and diagrams, microscopic sections and electronic scans, as well as colour photographs of all the types of stone discussed, the detailed descriptions of the quarries and numerous examples of quarrying and masonry techniques make this book an indispensable tool for the provenancing of museum exhibits. Originally published in German in 1993, this edition has been updated to take account of new research, and a new chapter on the building stones of the western oases has been added. Archaeologists, Egyptologists and travellers to Egypt will find a wealth of fascinating information on ancient quarry sites, working methods and transport in ancient Egypt, as well as an introduction to the geology of the Nile valley and the surrounding desert regions.

corundum, Mozambique.12, gems

Rubies have recently been discovered in northern Mozambique, specifically in Niassa Province (M’sawize village, Lichinga district) and Cabo Delgado Province (Montepuez area). These rubies display internal features such as twin planes, fluid-film inclusions, negative crystals, and crystalline inclusions. Many of the crystalline inclusions are colorless to green amphibole (possibly pargasite), along with confirmed apatite and fine needles producing “silk.” Some fractures contain material resembling hematite. Infrared spectra of unheated Mozambique rubies show a broad absorption band at 3309 and 3081 cm⁻¹, which disappears after heating; weak bands at 2074 and 1980 cm⁻¹, likely from diaspore, may also be present. EDXRF analysis reveals Cr contents of 0.3–0.8 wt.% and Fe contents of 0.2–0.5 wt.%, higher than typical non-basalt-related rubies but lower than basaltic rubies. Most Mozambique rubies have been heat-treated, often leaving flux residues in fissures.