corundum, Pakistan.12, gems

Piat describes ruby from the Hunza region of the western Himalayas, drawing attention to this remote locality as a source of gem-quality corundum. The brief account discusses the occurrence of the ruby and its geological setting, together with observations on the appearance and gemological character of the material. The article is an early notice of Hunza ruby and is of particular interest in documenting a Himalayan ruby occurrence outside the better-known deposits of Burma and Southeast Asia.

corundum, ruby, Kenya.12, East Africa, inclusions.5, gems

gems, jade, pyroxene jade, fei cui, guatemala, Mesoamerica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, archaeogemology, Mayan design, aesthetics, Olmec, Aztec, Guatemala, archaeology, pottery, ceramics

First edition, limited to 1000 copies Asaf 139 . Designed by Norman Ives. Features the Mayas beautiful alphabets on 87 objects such as pottery, statuery, stone panels, boxes, shells, jewelry and documents. Illustrated throughout, some in color. 160 pages. cloth.. oblong small folio.

gems, archaeology, archaeogemology, ancient jewelry

Jewellery in Ancient Times is the third title in this handsome series for the general reader whose interest in archaeology has been aroused by the growing coverage given the science by television, newspapers, journals, and the spate of exhibitions and specialist books of recent years. The series is also designed as an introductory primer for students making archaeology a course subject or, ultimately, a profession. The complete series is intended to be world-wide in its scope, and ranges from pre-history to post-Biblical Roman and Byzantine times. The art of the jeweller not only bears witness to early craftsmanship, or dress, costume, and cultural standards, but as Renate Rosenthal’s Jewellery in Ancient Times shows, it is an important indication of the trading-empires of the ancient world which were of a size and importance we are only just learning to appreciate.

corundum, synthetic corundum.7, gems

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

This is the second version of a paper that I have prepared on the feline motif in Olmec art. I tore up the first and began again after hearing a fascinating talk by Eric Thompson at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in which he demonstrated the close connection between the supreme god of the Maya—Itzamná—and the cult of Maya kings. While initially somewhat sceptical, I have become convinced that just such a relationship, involving the very same god-complex, existed between the jaguar and the royal house of the Olmec. While some of my paper may seem far-fetched to those unfamiliar with the unbelievably tortuous details of Mesoamerican religion, it should be pointed out that this study is only part of a much larger structural investigation of all known Mesoamerican theogonies, which I strongly feel comprise a single great system of tremendous antiquity. There are four possible sources of information available for the interpretation of Olmec iconography, the religious imagery of a civilization that began over three thousand years ago and is thus the earliest known in Mesoamerica. The first is Olmec art itself, which can be viewed from a purely formal standpoint; such an iconological study has been carried out by David Joralemon (1971) of Yale University. The second is the natural history of those animals—including man—which play a major role in Olmec iconography. The third comprises the rich data from Indigenous American cultures on the relationships between humans and those groups of animals that seem to have been of overriding importance to the Olmec; here I call attention to Peter Furst’s (1968) excellent examination of man-jaguar transformations in the tropical lowlands of South America. Fourthly and lastly, there is the possibility of a genetic analysis that would detect the homologies between Maya and Mexican religious iconographies; after relatively late items of diffusion between the two have been screened out, it is quite obvious that those images that are cognate should stem from their common origin, an origin that can only be Olmec.

gems, garnet, andradite, demantoid, pyralspite, ugrandite, FTIR spectra

A suite of 19 natural gem-quality garnets has been investigated to determine the correlations between those measurable quantities which are effective in their identification. The results reveal that IR spectroscopy, along with gemmological and chemical analyses, can provide sufficient data to enable positive characterization of garnet gemstones. In particular, the IR active bands over the 1150–800 and 650–450 cm⁻¹ ranges allow a discrimination between pyralspite and ugrandite series. Furthermore, pyrope, spessartine and andradite garnets exhibit such mid-infrared patterns that are potentially useful in their identification.

jade, nephrite, treatments, dyed jade, gems

corundum, synthetic corundum.7, assembled stones.8, gems

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

The ancient roots of Mexican civilization, as seen in its art and artifacts, are on view in the pages of this book, just as they are in the National Museum of Anthropology itself. Here the reader encounters the treasures of pre-Hispanic Mexico, as on a guided tour through the Museum’s splendours led by its Director. These range from the earliest traces of primitive civilizations to the most refined examples of sixteenth-century Aztec culture — from the small figures and pottery of the twelfth century B.C. Pre-Classic period, and the urns, frescoes and colossal statues of the Classic period, to the ceremonial dishes, ornaments and giant votive tablets of the Postclassic era, when the Spanish conquistadors first set foot in the new world of Mexico. From Tlatilco comes one of the earliest and most original creations of representational art in the Valley of Mexico, the Kneeling Woman Kissing a Dog, a small masterpiece that is highly personal and remarkably sophisticated in composition. From the Olmec culture comes the Group of Figures, composed of sixteen standing male statuettes arranged in an exceptionally impressive tableau, reproduced here in a magnificent double spread. Also represented are such masterpieces of the Classic period as the Seated Woman, a fifth-century image of sovereign authority embodying the goddess of fertility, sensual in its vibrant play of light and shade, and the figure of the god Tlaloc, innocent and refined, pouring upon the earth the life-giving waters that nourish the crops. The genius of later Mexican art is seen in the fourteenth-century Flower Prince, a sacred portrait of Xochipilli, the Aztec god of spring, love, poetry and dance, which combines floral elements with geometric simplicity; the Crouching Rabbit, an exquisite rock-crystal sculpture of exceptional balance and compact stylization; and, crowning the collection, the giant Sun Stone, representing the history of the world — abstract, occult and filled with the fire and movement of the Aztec universe.