gems, corundum, synthetic corundum.7

jade, jadeite, jadeite, fei cui triplet, assembled stones, gems

corundum, Montana.12, USA.12, gems

Lab notes - NY. Note on 10 ct. stone (with photograph). Probably not Yogo (as it has rutile silk)

gems, jade, pyroxene jade, fei cui, mesoamerica, Guatemala, Mexico, Aztec, Olmec, Maya, Costa Rica, Honduras, rubber, sculpture, art, history, anthropology, archaeology, archaeogemology

On the coastal plain of southern Veracruz and northern Tabasco, humid, tropical, and swampy, there are archaeological sites such as La Venta, El Trapiche, Cerro de las Mesas, Tres Zapotes, and others, covered by a luxuriant jungle that contrasts in some areas with the flora characteristic of marshes and wetlands. In that hostile region, crowded with forests, waterways, and grasslands, certain human groups developed their culture to remarkable levels, considering the tropical jungle that hindered agricultural settlement, the heat and humidity that reduced the capacity for human labour, and the rudimentary technology of the time. Despite these highly adverse conditions, a vigorous artistic style originated there which, in the course of time, influenced many neighbouring peoples, left its mark even in distant places, and fostered the emergence of the great civilizations of pre-Hispanic Mexico. In archaeological terminology, the culture that created this artistic style is known as the Olmec culture and also as the Culture of La Venta, because it was at this site—the most thoroughly studied—that it reached its true florescence. Yet despite the extensive bibliography and research already devoted to this culture, its origin and development, its evolutionary phases and characteristics, as well as its interrelationships and antiquity, remain fascinating subjects for any investigator. Olmec means “inhabitant of Olman”; that is, an inhabitant of the land of rubber, of the tropical lowlands in general, and especially of the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where the finest rubber was produced in pre-Hispanic times. This is the meaning given to the term by the chroniclers of the sixteenth century, who used it to designate several coastal groups occupying that region around the time of the conquest. In the historical sources, the Olmecs are almost always mentioned together with the Uixtotin, Nonohualcas, and other groups. These names mean respectively “people of the land of rubber,” “people of the salt flats,” and “those who do not speak Nahuatl.” As Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán has pointed out, “rubber,” “salt flats,” and “a different language” are characteristics that aptly describe both the region and the inhabitants of the southern Gulf Coast.

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

McBirney, Bass, and Aoki report the discovery and mineralogical study of a large detrital jadeite boulder from Manzanal in the Motagua Valley of Guatemala, found during a 1963 reconnaissance of the metamorphic and ultramafic rocks associated with the Motagua fault zone. The approximately 100 kg boulder was recovered from an alluvial terrace beside the Atlantic highway, about 100 m east of Manzanal. Although jadeite had previously been found as pebbles and detrital material in the Motagua drainage, no occurrence in situ was then known. From the distribution of jadeite fragments, the authors infer a nearby source in a zone of intense shearing where metamorphic rocks of the Chuacús Series—including amphibolites, garnet-biotite gneisses, and actinolite schists—are faulted against serpentinite. Associated rocks include assemblages of albite-actinolite, albite-white mica, dolomite-chalcedony-quartz, and albite-quartz with blue-green amphibole. Chemical, optical, and X-ray studies of carefully separated material establish jadeite as the principal pyroxene, while the mineralogical associations indicate formation under high-pressure metamorphic conditions related to the Motagua fault zone. The occurrence provides further geological evidence for a local Guatemalan source of the jadeite used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica.

gems, analytical, obsidian, archaeology, archaeogemology

Evidence of contact between cultural groups is of great importance to the study of prehistory. Although the development of absolute dating methods has decreased our dependence on the discovery of such contacts for chronology, they are essential material when the origin and spread of culture is being studied. In the past, cultural contacts have generally been demonstrated by typological similarities of artifacts, but unfortunately many typological comparisons are open to discussion, and it can be exceedingly difficult to be certain of direct contact by this means alone. The importance in this respect of the study of raw materials used in places far from their place of origin and presumably deliberately imported has long been realized. Recently more attention has been paid to the careful characterization of such materials; the detection, that is, of properties of the specimen under study which are characteristic of material from particular sources. By this means it is often possible to assign a source to a given specimen. The petrological identification of British neolithic stone axes is perhaps the most comprehensive archaeological characterization study yet undertaken. Demonstrations of trading links made by such methods, if based on a sure identification and a comprehensive survey of possible sources, are not open to the criticism and doubt which may be directed at typological similarities. The variety of techniques now available for the analysis and identification of materials makes this field a promising one for the archaeologist.

opal, treatments, gems

SEVERAL parcels of dyed black opals have recently been offered in the European market. I am indebted to Mr. Arthur A. Wirth of Sydney, Australia, who kindly enabled me to acquire a number of treated black opals of varying quality for investigation.

Gilson, Chatham, Zerfass, Farben, gems

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

Sinkankas: Historical note on the formation of the collection, its public exhibitions, and final resting place in a special building upon the Dumbarton Oaks grounds, Washington, D.C. The three sketch maps correspond with the collection & catalog arrangement, ie, artifacts from the three broad regions of Mesoamerica, Costa Rica-Colombia, and Andean region. There are 425 items, the largest portion of jadeite objects and other hard and soft stones, illustrated on the many excellent plates. Other classes of artifacts: ceramics, metals, textiles.

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

Pre-Hispanic art, art of New Spain, modern art, folk art—these designations are more than aesthetic terminology; the periods they refer to are also stages in the formation of our national existence. The collection of sculpture, paintings, ritual objects and domestic tools, toys and ornaments which is now offered the American public represents a vertical section of Mexican life since its first beginnings until our time. We want to show, not only a number of remarkable works and objects, but also a truthful and varied picture of “Mexican man”, a picture in which the native and the European heritages merge. We wish to render the original character of Mexican art, which in its various historical periods, throughout three millennia, has always been closely connected with life. In this sense one can affirm that art has been necessary, even in its most fantastic manifestations, to the Indian creators, to the Baroque artists, and to the contemporary artists. The presence of man on American soil, where he probably came from Asia, can be traced back about 25,000 years. The oldest material vestiges suggest a stage corresponding to the ethnic groups of the earlier Stone Age. In central Mexico fossil remains about 11,000 years old have been found. The first inhabitants of the country were mammoth hunters. But the populations that we have been able to obtain information about lived much later: about 1,500 B.C. It is still a source of much speculation among specialists that already fully constituted societies, whose immediate antecedents we are even now unable to define, appeared at the same time. In this period the division into two zones, which remained the same in all essentials till the Spanish Conquest, took place: the northern zone, mainly populated by nomads, and the southern zone of agriculture, political organization, the great religions and the great epochs of artistic style. The latter zone covered a territory, bordering on the 23rd parallel to the north, and including Costa Rica to the south. These two zones are designated by the term Mesoamerica. In order to facilitate an understanding of the pre-Hispanic world we have preferred a disposition that emphasizes the interrelative connections of the various styles to a purely chronological or geographical one, without disrupting the continuity of the cultures.