corundum, history.1, Demigeron, gems

Halleux examines the transmission of the Alexandrian lapidary tradition into medieval Europe through texts associated with Damigeron, Evax, and Marbode. The study traces relationships among these lapidaries and investigates the survival and transformation of ancient traditions concerning stones, particularly their supposed medicinal, magical, and astrological properties. It considers the textual sources and transmission of this material from late antiquity into medieval Latin literature, showing how inherited knowledge about stones was adapted and reorganized by successive authors. The article is particularly relevant to the history of gemology for its analysis of the origins and development of medieval European beliefs concerning the properties and virtues of gemstones.

gems, turquoise, Iran, Persian turquoise, archaeology, archaeogemology, history of turquoise mining and processing, lapis lazuli

Around the same time, flint drills were discovered in large numbers in Shahr-i Sokhta. A comparative study between the turquoise waste found in the archaeological site’s layers and turquoise beads discovered in burials indicates that turquoise came to the town in the form of finished products, in contrast to lapis lazuli, which was manufactured on-site (because of the larger quantity of extracted lapis waste) (Tosi 1973).

beryl, emerald, Colombia, gems

Barriga Villalba and Barriga del Diestro present a monographic study of Colombian emerald, describing its principal characteristics and properties. The work considers emerald as a mineral and gemstone, with attention to its physical and optical properties, characteristic color and inclusions, and the features associated with Colombian material. It also discusses the geological occurrence and principal emerald-producing areas of Colombia, particularly the deposits of the Eastern Cordillera, and addresses aspects of mining and the evaluation of emeralds. The volume provides a contemporary Colombian account of the country’s most important gemstone and its distinguishing gemological and geological characteristics.

gems, lapis lazuli, Afghanistan, history of gemology, gem trade, Central Asia, Badakhshan, Sar-e-Sang

Wyart, Bariand and Filippi describe the lapis lazuli deposit of Sar-e-Sang in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, one of the historically important sources of the material. The paper examines the geological setting and mineralogy of the deposit, where lapis lazuli occurs in metamorphosed carbonate rocks, and discusses the constituent minerals of the lapis-bearing material. Particular attention is given to lazurite, the mineral responsible for the characteristic blue color, and to its association with calcite, pyrite, and other minerals. The authors relate the mineral assemblage to the geological conditions of formation and provide a mineralogical and geological characterization of Sar-e-Sang lapis lazuli and its host rocks.

corundum, violet sapphire, Umba Valley, Tanzania.12, East Africa, gems

Bank, Berdesinski and Ottemann describe violet gem-quality corundum from the Umba region of Tanzania. The brief paper examines the mineralogical and gemological properties of the violet material and its relationship to other fancy-colored corundums from this important East African deposit. Particular attention is given to the coloration of the stones and the trace elements responsible for it, together with physical and optical properties useful in characterizing the material. The occurrence adds violet corundum to the wide range of ruby, sapphire, and fancy-colored corundum known from the Umba area.

gems, archaeology, archaeogemology, Mediterranean, Ptolemaic-Roman, Red Sea, Egypt, Greece, Greek, Egyptian blue pigment, cuprorivaite, ceramic

Egyptian blue is defined; identification, especially by X-ray powder diffraction, is described; history of use is summarized; laboratory fabrica tion of Egyptian blue is described; evidence of manufacturing techniques is discussed. If they shape one common theme, these collected papers clearly indicate the directions of current research in archaeological chemistry—a term that,, taken in a broad sense, includes techniques and methodologies of many areas of science other than chemistry. Dr. Brill, in fact, advocates use of the term “archaeometry” (coined by Dr. E. T. Hall of Oxford University) to describe more accurately the work of quite a few investigators in the field. Twenty-one chapters by distinguished contributors are organized in three main categories according to research objectives. Part One contains investigations of individual objects or small groups of objects, describing how they were made and their places in the early history of technology or science. Studies in Part Two consist of analyses of such diverse materials as metals, pottery, obsidian, and amber to uncover patterns of chemical composition for the classification of fragments according to provenance or date. A number of chapters in this section deal with neutron-activation analysis. The book's final part describes four techniques used for dating archaeological objects. The volume is generous in scope, ranging over a variety of approaches and motivations, research tools, and archaeological materials. Some of the more technically advanced studies cover up-to-date and complex instrumentation for analyzing samples more accurately, more rapidly, and with greater convenience than before, while others emphasize the detailed handling or “autopsy” of the objects themselves. The material in this book was originally prepared for the Fourth Symposium on Archaeological Chemistry, sponsored by the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society in 1968. Dr. Brill cites several problems that should form the basis for further research: the criteria for selecting what is necessary and significant from increasingly unwieldy bodies of data; the means by which findings in this field can be used in a more than descriptive manner to reveal something new about early man; and the continued necessity for close cooperation between the archaeometrist and archaeologist. The former, Dr. Brill points out, must take a major part in interpreting his findings and not merely leave his tabulations and statistical correlations to the historian and archaeologist.

gems, archaeology, archaeogemology, Libya, garnet

Daniels’s essay on the Garamantes, though brief, contains a remarkable amount of valuable information, much of it drawn from fieldwork at Germa and its environs in which he has been directly involved. While much of the material has appeared previously, it remains difficult to access, and the significance of the work at Germa lies in its major contribution to the broader understanding of “Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers”—a field which, the reviewer suggests, offers more fruitful opportunities for archaeologists than continued focus on well-explored Roman provincial areas. The Romans themselves seem to have shown little interest in their North African neighbors; it is telling that almost nothing was added to Herodotus’s account between the fifth and first centuries BCE, and that Roman curiosity about the desert fringes was minimal. Daniels provides a concise and sensible overview of the region’s human geography, carefully avoiding speculative theories based on strained interpretations of Pliny and Ptolemy. He also cautions against equating archaeological finds with tribal names—highlighting, for example, the absence of chariot or horse-trapping remains in presumed Garamantian territory despite Herodotus’s famous descriptions, even as chariot imagery appears widely across Saharan rock art from Tibesti to southern Morocco. Overall, Daniels adopts a conservative approach to defining the Garamantes’ territorial range, anchoring their core in the Wadi el-Ajal with Garama/Germa as their capital, and noting that their relation to other Libyan groups remains unknown, particularly given the lack of inscriptions in the Libyan alphabet.

gems, early lapidaries, early gemology, early mineralogy, English lapidaries

Sinkankas: A study of a lapidary identified as Bodleian Library MS Eng. misc. e. 558, with introductory remarks on Old and Middle English in general, the manuscript, its language, etc. Treats 37 stones, including gemstones, and is claimed to be “a rather close translation of the Second Anglo-Norman Prose Lapidary” of Studer & Evans, Anglo-Norman Lapidaries (1925), pp. 111–136, which see.

beryl, emerald, Pakistan, gems

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