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

Fifteen hundred years ago, Teotihuacan was one of the world’s great cities. Some 200,000 people lived in this ancient metropolis, with its massive pyramids, public buildings, wide avenues, and magnificent murals and sculptures. Then, in the eighth century, there was a mysterious collapse. Even knowledge of the original name was lost: Teotihuacan, “Place” or “City of the Gods,” was a title bestowed by the Aztecs six hundred years later. Originally published in conjunction with a major exhibition organized by The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, this seminal volume brings together for the first time the results of unprecedented research over the last two decades. A splendid array of rarely seen masterpieces, selected from Mexico’s national collections and from museums in America and Europe, includes austere greenstone masks and elegant polished blackware as well as elaborate murals depicting gods and serpents and the intricate glyphs found on luxury ceramics and censers.

gems, jade, pyroxene jade, fei cui, Guatemala, Mesoamerica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, archaeogemology, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Maya, Mayan, Olmec, Aztec

In 1940, diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife Mildred Barnes Bliss donated their Washington, D.C. estate, Dumbarton Oaks, to Harvard University. The gift included the house and grounds, its furnishings, and the Blisses’ collection and research library devoted to Byzantine art. During the 1930s, these resources had already attracted scholars, and the Blisses intended to create a permanent centre for advanced humanistic research. As Mildred Bliss later explained, Dumbarton Oaks was envisioned not simply as a repository of books and artworks, but as “a home of the Humanities.” The institution’s founding inscription further emphasized its purpose: to preserve and advance scholarship in the Byzantine and medieval humanities, helping to illuminate the present and guide the future through learned inquiry. At first, research at Dumbarton Oaks focused exclusively on Byzantine and medieval studies, reflecting the Blisses’ shared intellectual interests. However, the institution was always intended to expand. While concerts continued in the Music Room, Mildred Bliss oversaw the development of the formal gardens, and Robert Bliss continued collecting Pre-Columbian art. Around twenty years later, programs in the history of landscape architecture and Pre-Columbian studies were added to the original Byzantine program, thereby encompassing the principal scholarly and artistic interests of the founders. Since the early 1960s, these three research programs, together with the gardens, the historic house, and a continuing series of chamber music concerts, have formed the core activities of Dumbarton Oaks.

gems, garnet, grossular, hessonite, India, Orissa, tourmaline, sillimanite

The state of Orissa in eastern India has emerged as an increasingly important source of gemstones. Since 1989, rising quantities of rhodolite garnets from the region have been seen, followed by notable finds of aquamarine and ruby. At the 1993 Tucson Show, Amar J. Jain presented a 2.99 ct faceted alexandrite and dark grayish blue tourmalines from Orissa, one of which—a 1.74 ct emerald-cut specimen—showed gemological properties consistent with tourmaline from other locations, including refractive indices of 1.620 and 1.640, birefringence of 0.020, and specific gravity of 3.11. Hessonite (grossular) garnet is also being mined near Kanta Bhaji in the Kalahandi area, with faceted stones ranging from reddish orange to orangish brown; many exhibit a pronounced “roiled” appearance typical of Sri Lankan hessonites, sometimes resembling translucent sard. A 2.19 ct orange stone tested with an R.I. of 1.748 and S.G. of 3.65, confirming it as hessonite. Following the show, the editors received a report from Shyamala Fernandes of the Gem Testing Laboratory in Jaipur describing a December 1992 find of chatoyant sillimanite, initially misidentified and marketed as “moonstone cat’s-eye.” Identified as sillimanite, the material exhibited an R.I. of 1.659–1.678 (1.66 spot), S.G. of 3.25, biaxial optic character, and Mohs hardness of 7–8. Microscopy revealed parallel acicular inclusions responsible for the chatoyancy, along with “fingerprint” two- and three-phase inclusions and black platelets. The sillimanite occurs in colors ranging from colorless to gray, pinkish brown, yellow, green, and blue-green, typically in lighter tones, and most cabochons—some up to 20 ct—display sharp cat’s-eyes and a vitreous luster. Though precise production data is lacking, the material has been readily available in Indian markets since its discovery.

gems, ancient gems, glyptic, Egypt, history of gemology, history of mineralogy, archaeogemology, archaeology, Greece, Near East, Alexander the Great, Seleucus

The empire created by Alexander the Great's general, Seleucus, constituted the largest Hellenistic kingdom of the successor states: yet this is the first substantial treatment of Seleucid history to appear for fifty years. The authors approach this important and successful state from new perspectives, seeing it as part of the Middle Eastern world rather than solely in Greco-Roman terms, and arguing that the Seleucid state is best understood as heir to the great Achaemenid Persian empire and earlier Middle Eastern states. They investigate the economies, social structures, political systems, and cultures of the many peoples making up the empire, and analyze, in the context of colonialism and imperialism, such evidence as exists for cultural changes, including Hellenization.

gems, history of gemology, ivory, Africa, trade, commerce, trade routes

The program of elephant hunting inaugurated by the Ptolemies has received mention in all histories of their reign and has been dealt with in more or less detail by a number of writers. Yet nowhere do we find full awareness of how great an achievement it was or of who deserves the chief credit. The honors, I will show, are to be awarded to Philadelphus: it was he who put in place the complex and farflung organization the program required, solved difficult problems of recruitment, and promoted an essential new development in naval technology.

corundum, inclusions.5, gems

jade, jadeite, fei cui, treated jade, FTIR, B jade, gems, SEM

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is investigated as a means of distinguishing untreated fei cui from acid-bleached and polymer-impregnated material by examining surface texture and electrical charging. Twelve polished green specimens, comprising four naturally coloured cabochons and eight treated pieces, were tested with conventional gemmological instruments; two weathered rough pebbles were additionally examined for fluorescence characteristics. Selected polished surfaces were then studied by SEM. All twelve polished specimens gave spot refractive indices around 1.66 and displayed similar visible absorption spectra, including the characteristic band at 437 nm, so these observations did not distinguish treatment. Most treated specimens floated in a heavy liquid of specific gravity 3.32, but two sank, as did all four untreated cabochons. Long-wave ultraviolet fluorescence also proved inconclusive: treated pieces showed variable chalky blue or yellow reactions, with one remaining inert, while naturally weathered material fluoresced strongly along altered edges and fractures. Ordinary microscopy generally revealed a cracked or spiderweb-like surface in treated specimens, but a very fine-grained example lacked this appearance. SEM examination showed that untreated fei cui possessed a compact interlocking microgranular structure, with grain boundaries remaining closely joined even at 2000× magnification. Treated specimens exhibited widened, etched grain boundaries, fractures and surface defects, more clearly resolved than under a gemmological microscope. Granular material could resemble a dried mudflat, while fibrous material displayed a looser texture with conspicuous gaps. Polymer accumulated in these spaces produced intense electrical charging during scanning, recorded as bright white lines outlining grains and filling fractures. This response was distinguished from the weaker, cloud-like white patches caused by surface wax. The fine-grained treated specimen required 500× magnification to reveal widened intergranular boundaries that were unresolved at 150× and undetectable with conventional optical examination. Tilting specimens improved the visibility of diagnostic surface features at magnifications between 150× and 500×. The authors conclude that SEM can provide useful confirmation of bleaching and impregnation, complementing other identification methods, including infrared spectroscopy. Although instrument cost and limited access restrict routine application, they report that a suspect specimen can be identified in under ten minutes and suggest that additional elemental analysis could further improve discrimination.

corundum, Burma.12, Mong Hsu, India.12, gems

corundum, Nepal.12, gems

corundum, synthetic corundum.7, Czochralski, gems