gems, beryl, emerald, Egypt, Russia

Sinkankas: The discovery of the Alexandrian hoard of gemstones and other materials, including glasses, enamels, partly-worked, and finished gemstones during 1867–9, inspired the present study of Egyptian emeralds in a monograph of great historical and archaeological value, not to mention the numerous gleanings of pertinent information from ancient writers who mentioned Egyptian emerald. As a result of the discovery of the hoard, a controversy arose concerning the origin of the emeralds—were they from Egypt or were they from the Urals? Andreas Arzruni, the eminent European mineralogist, was called in to examine the specimens and compare them to emeralds from Gebel Sabara in Egypt and from the Urals. From his examinations, especially of inclusions, he concluded that the Alexandrian stones were from Gebel Sabara. In the course of his study, Schneider examined works by K.R. Lepsius (1810–1884), a German Egyptologist, Leo Africanus, Diodorus Siculus, Ptolemy Philadelphus, Solinus Polyhistor, Aelian, Lucian, Strabo, Olympiodorus, and other ancient writers, and took much from a treatise on gemstones by Masudi (Abu-al-Hasan Ali al-Masudi, d. 956 AD) and Achmed Teifaschi (13th c. Cairo gem dealer), not to mention much later accounts of travelers, explorers, and visitors to the Gebel Sabara emerald mines. Among the latter may be mentioned Frederic Cailliaud (1787–1869), whose account is referenced elsewhere in the present bibliography, and who rediscovered the emerald mines in 1816. [919] The present account by Schneider is of great importance but is rarely mentioned in the ordinary gemological bibliographies; it deserves translation into English and other languages. USGS Kunz Coll, GS 34-1005.