Navajo Turquoise jewelry features die-stamped designs. In the 16th century, the cultures of the American Southwest used Turquoise as currency. It was also often found on the facades of Indian homes. Mexico-Aztec Turquoise mines began operating between AD. Native American Jewelry is highly respected today. The major sources are in the Sinai Peninsula and Iran. Some of these wonderful stones can be found in Turquoise Earrings , Turquoise Rings , Turquoise Bracelets and even one of the Queen of England's crowns.
To no surprise Turquoise is the national gem of Iran. This section is intended to uncover references in history to gems, gemstones, minerals, crystals, precious metals and semi-precious stones and to investigate the role they played in the development of the cultures in which they were utilized. We believe examples of royal jewelry and ancient jewelry from anthropology, sociology and archaeology from the ancient societies of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and especially the work of Pre-Columbian American cultures of the North American Indians, Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans to be of craftsmanship that has not been equaled since.
From the bible, commerce, celestial beliefs to modern crystal collecting. Egypt-The history of Turquoise use in the Middle East coincides with the beginning of civilization itself. Turquoise mining began in the Sinai Peninsula around BC. The stones taken from these mines served jewelry, amulet and cosmetic purposes for millennia.
In , archaeologists who excavated the tomb of the Egyptian Queen Zer BC found a Turquoise and gold bracelet on her wrist. The fine stones from this area were important sources of trade and were found in graves as far away as Turkestan and the Caucasus.
These revered stones, so important to the Persian culture, were called Ferozah, which meant victorious. In modern times, Iran honors Turquoise as its national gemstone. The Bible-The book of Exodus contains an important reference to Turquoise. Turquoise was the first stone on the second row. By the middle of the first millennium, AD, China had begun using Turquoise and although they had mines in their empire, they imported most of their stones from Persians, the Turks, the Tibetans and Mongols.
Chinese turquoise and Tibetan Turquoise is now one of most common varieties of turquoise on the market today. With stones that range in color from emerald green to soft blue, the Royston Turquoise mine is a popular one that allows the public to enter the mine and find turquoise independently. The beautiful greens and blues of each stone stand out against its golden brown matrix, and you can be sure that the turquoise you find there is of high quality.
In this mine, one can find turquoise stones ranging from light blue with streaks of dark blue to dark green with light blue spots. These green and blue stones are not as common as the regular blue variety, making this mine an interesting place to find turquoise in its natural state.
No matter which mine you choose, the turquoise you find there will be unique. The color of each stone will depend on its surrounding elements. If you choose a mine with lots of iron or zinc present, the stones will have a yellowish green shade, whereas the mines with more copper present will produce bluer turquoise stones.
Some stones will exhibit a web-like matrix, while others will have thicker lines running through them. Some of this unusually colored turquoise may involve important zinc and iron, causing the lovely tones of light green to yellow-green.
Some of the colors of blue to green-yellow may effectively be variscite or faustite, which is comparable in shape to turquoise secondary phosphate minerals. This area was regarded by the indigenous Monitu as the Turkey Country. The peninsula has six mines, all on its southwest shore, spanning an area of approximately km2 sq mi. From a historical view, the two most significant of these mines are Serabit el-Khadim and Wadi Maghareh, one of the earliest recognized mines.
The former mine is about 4 kilometers from an old temple devoted to the Hathor deity. The turquoise is discovered in basalt-covered sandstone, or was initially overlain. There are works of copper and iron in the region. Large-scale turquoise mining is not lucrative today, but Bedouin populations use homemade weapons to quarry the deposits sporadically. Miners face a danger of flash flooding in the rainy summer months; mortality from the fall of the haphazardly utilized sandstone mine walls is not unheard of even in the dry season.
The color of material from Sinai is typically greener than material from Iran, but is believed to be stable and relatively durable. For at least 2, years, Iran has been a major source of turquoise.
The black turquoise was used in Iranian architecture to cover the palace towers as its intense red color was also a sign of heaven on earth. This sample is obviously black and becomes green owing to dehydration when heated. A battered and crushed trachyte is the host of the turquoise, discovered both in situ between limonite and sandstone strata and between the scree at the top of the mountain. Together with the Sinai Peninsula, these works are the longest known.
Iran also has turquoise mines in the provinces of Semnan and Kerman. Turquoise prehistoric artifacts beads have been known from sites in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria since the fifth millennium BCE — the source of the raw material may be related to the nearby Spahievo field of lead — zinc ore. For 3, years or more, China has been a small source of turquoise. Gem-quality material in the shape of compact nodules is discovered in Yunxian and Zhushan, Hubei county, broken, silicized calcareous.
Marco Polo also revealed turquoise discovered in Sichuan today. Most of the Chinese product is imported, but there are a few jade-like sculptures that have operated. Friday, November 12, Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Geology Page. Home Latest News Video. Debris Flow Dynamics.
0コメント