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Lapis lazuli

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Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:For Template:Redirect Template:Redirect Template:Infobox rock

Lapis lazuli (Template:IPAc-en; Template:IPAc-en), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. Originating from the Persian word for the gem, lāžward,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> lapis lazuli is a rock composed primarily of the minerals lazurite, pyrite and calcite. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines,<ref name="Bomford-2009">David Bomford and Ashok Roy, A Closer Look- Colour (2009), National Gallery Company, London, (Template:ISBN)</ref> in Shortugai, and in other mines in Badakhshan province in modern northeast Afghanistan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BC, have been found at Bhirrana, which is the oldest site of Indus Valley civilisation.<ref name="excnagasi-2020">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300–1900 BC).<ref name="excnagasi-2020" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and as far away as Mauritania.<ref name=bc1995>Template:Harvcolnb</ref> It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BC).<ref>Alessandro Bongioanni & Maria Croce</ref>

By the end of the Middle Ages, Lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into the pigment ultramarine. Ultramarine was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Masaccio, Perugino, Titian and Vermeer, and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures of their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary. Ultramarine has also been found in dental tartar of medieval nuns and scribes, perhaps as a result of licking their painting brushes while producing medieval texts and manuscripts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

HistoryEdit

Excavations from Tepe Gawra show that Lapis lazuli was introduced to Mesopotamia approximately in the late Ubaid period, c. 4900–4000 BCE.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A traditional understanding was that the Lapis lazuli was mined some fifteen hundred miles to the east – in Badakhshan. Indeed, the Persian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, also written {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, is commonly interpreted as having an origin in a local place name.

From the Persian, the Arabic {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration is the etymological source of both the English word azure (via Old French azur) and Medieval Latin {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which came to mean 'heaven' or 'sky'. To disambiguate, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("stone of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}") was used to refer to the stone itself, and is the term ultimately imported into Middle English.<ref name="Senning-2007">Template:Cite book</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is etymologically related to the color blue, and used as a root for the word for blue in several languages, including Spanish and Portuguese {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name="Senning-2007" /><ref name="Weekley-1967">Template:Cite book</ref>

Mines in northeast Afghanistan continue to be a major source of lapis lazuli. Important amounts are also produced from mines west of Lake Baikal in Russia, and in the Andes mountains in Chile which is the source that the Inca used to carve artifacts and jewelry. Smaller quantities are mined in Pakistan, Italy, Mongolia, the United States, and Canada.<ref name="ICGA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Science and usesEdit

CompositionEdit

The most important mineral component of lapis lazuli is lazurite<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (25% to 40%),Template:Citation needed a blue feldspathoid silicate mineral of the sodalite family, with the formula Na7Ca(Al6Si6O24)(SO4)(S3) ·H2O .<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Most lapis lazuli also contains calcite (white), and pyrite (metallic yellow). Some samples of lapis lazuli contain augite, diopside, enstatite, mica, hauynite, hornblende, nosean, and sulfur-rich löllingite geyerite.

Lapis lazuli usually occurs in crystalline marble as a result of contact metamorphism.

ColorEdit

File:Lapis-Lazuli microscope x240.jpg
Lapis lazuli seen through a microscope (x240 magnification)

The intense blue color is due to the presence of the trisulfur radical anion (Template:Chem) in the crystal.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The presence of disulfur (Template:Chem) and tetrasulfur (Template:Chem) radicals can shift the color towards yellow or red, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> These radical anions substitute for the chloride anions within the sodalite structure.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Template:Chem radical anion exhibits a visible absorption band in the range 595–620 nm with high molar absorptivity, leading to its bright blue color.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

SourcesEdit

Lapis lazuli is found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in north-eastern Afghanistan, where the Sar-i Sang mine deposits have been worked for more than 6,000 years.<ref name="Oldershaw-2003">Template:Harvcolnb</ref> Afghanistan was the source of lapis for the ancient Persian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as the later Greeks and Romans. Ancient Egyptians obtained the material through trade with Mesopotamians, as part of Egypt–Mesopotamia relations and from ancient Ethiopia . During the height of the Indus Valley civilisation, approximately 2000 BC, the Harappan colony, now known as Shortugai, was established near the lapis mines.<ref name=bc1995/>

In addition to the Afghan deposits, lapis is also extracted in the Andes (near Ovalle, Chile); and to the west of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, at the Tultui lazurite deposit. It is mined in smaller amounts in Angola, Argentina, Burma, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Canada, Italy, India, and in the United States in California and Colorado.<ref name="ICGA"/>

Uses and substitutesEdit

Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewellery, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments, small statues, and vases. Interior items and finishing buildings can be also made with lapis. During the Renaissance, lapis was ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine for use in frescoes and oil painting. Its usage as a pigment in oil paint largely ended during the early 19th century, when a chemically identical synthetic variety became available.

Lapis lazuli is commercially synthesized or simulated by the Gillson process, which is used to make artificial ultramarine and hydrous zinc phosphates.<ref>Read, Peter (2005). Gemmology Template:Webarchive, Elsevier, p. 185. Template:ISBN.</ref> Spinel or sodalite, or dyed jasper or howlite, can be substituted for lapis.<ref>Lapis lazuli Template:Webarchive, Gemstone Buzz.</ref>

  • Lazurite.jpg

    Crystals of lazurite (the main mineral in lapis lazuli) from the Sar-i Sang Mining District in Afghanistan

  • Lapis lazuli block.jpg

    A polished block of lapis lazuli

  • Natural ultramarine pigment.jpg

    Natural ultramarine pigment made from ground lapis lazuli. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance it was the most expensive pigment available (gold being second) and was often reserved for depicting the robes of Angels or the Virgin Mary

  • 19th Century lapis lazuli and diamond pendant.jpg

    19th-century lapis lazuli and diamond pendant

History and artEdit

In the ancient worldEdit

Template:Further information Lapis lazuli has been mined in Afghanistan and exported to the Mediterranean world and South Asia since the Neolithic age,<ref name="Moorey-1999">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> along the ancient trade route between Afghanistan and the Indus Valley dating to the 7th millennium BC. Quantities of these beads have also been found at 4th millennium BC settlements in Northern Mesopotamia, and at the Bronze Age site of Shahr-e Sukhteh in southeast Iran (3rd millennium BC). A dagger with a lapis handle, a bowl inlaid with lapis, amulets, beads, and inlays representing eyebrows and beards, were found in the Royal Tombs of the Sumerian city-state of Ur from the 3rd millennium BC.<ref name="Moorey-1999"/>

Lapis was also used in ancient Persia, Mesopotamia by the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians for seals and jewelry. It is mentioned several times in the Mesopotamian poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh (17th–18th century BC), one of the oldest known works of literature. The Statue of Ebih-Il, a 3rd millennium BC statue found in the ancient city-state of Mari in modern-day Syria, now in the Louvre, uses lapis lazuli inlays for the irises of the eyes.<ref name="Claire">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In ancient Egypt, lapis lazuli was a favorite stone for amulets and ornaments such as scarabs. Lapis jewellery has been found at excavations of the Predynastic Egyptian site Naqada (3300–3100 BC). At Karnak, the relief carvings of Thutmose III (1479–1429 BC) show fragments and barrel-shaped pieces of lapis lazuli being delivered to him as tribute. Powdered lapis was used as eyeshadow by Cleopatra.<ref name=bc1995/><ref>[1] Template:Webarchive Moment of Science site, Indiana Public Media</ref>

Jewelry made of lapis lazuli has also been found at Mycenae attesting to relations between the Myceneans and the developed civilizations of Egypt and the East.<ref>Alcestis Papademetriou, Mycenae, John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, 2015, p. 32.</ref>

Pliny the Elder wrote that lapis lazuli is "opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold".Template:Citation needed Because the stone combines the blue of the heavens and golden glitter of the sun, it was emblematic of success in the old Jewish tradition.Template:Citation needed In the early Christian tradition lapis lazuli was regarded as the stone of Virgin Mary.Template:Citation needed

In late classical times and as late as the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli was often called sapphire (sapphirus in Latin, sappir in Hebrew),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> though it had little to do with the stone today known as the blue corundum variety sapphire. In his book on stones, the Greek scientist Theophrastus described "the sapphirus, which is speckled with gold," a description which matches lapis lazuli.<ref>Theophrastus, On Stones (De Lapidibus) – IV-23, translated by D.E. Eichholtz, Oxford University Press, 1965.</ref>

File:Meisje met de parel.jpg
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer

There are many references to "sapphire" in the Old Testament, but most scholars agree that, since sapphire was not known before the Roman Empire, they most likely are references to lapis lazuli. For instance, Exodus 24:10: "And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone..." (KJV). The words used in the Latin Vulgate Bible in this citation are "quasi opus lapidis sapphirini", the terms for lapis lazuli.<ref>Pearlie Braswell-Tripp (2013), Real Diamonds and Precious Stones of the Bible Template:ISBN</ref> Modern translations of the Bible, such as the New Living Translation Second Edition,<ref>"In His Image Devotional Bible" Template:ISBN</ref> refer to lapis lazuli in most instances instead of sapphire.

VermeerEdit

Johannes Vermeer used lapis lazuli paint in the Girl with a Pearl Earring painting.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

YeatsEdit

The poet, William Butler Yeats, describes a figurine of sculpted lapis lazuli in a poem entitled "Lapis Lazuli". The sculpture of three men from China, a bird, and a musical instrument serves in the poem as a reminder of "gaiety" in the face of tragedy.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

GalleryEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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BibliographyEdit

  • Bakhtiar, Lailee McNair, Afghanistan's Blue Treasure Lapis Lazuli, Front Porch Publishing, 2011, Template:ISBN
  • Bariand, Pierre, "Lapis Lazuli", Mineral Digest, Vol 4 Winter 1972.
  • Template:Cite book
  • Herrmann, Georgina, "Lapis Lazuli: The Early Phases of Its Trade", Oxford University Dissertation, 1966.
  • Korzhinskij, D. S., "Gisements bimetasomatiques de philogophite et de lazurite de l'Archen du pribajkale", Traduction par Mr. Jean Sagarzky-B.R.G.M., 1944.
  • Lapparent A. F., Bariand, P. et Blaise, J., "Une visite au gisement de lapis lazuli de Sar-e-Sang du Hindu Kouch, Afghanistan," C.R. Somm.S.G.P.p. 30, 1964.
  • Template:Cite book.
  • Wise, Richard W., Secrets of the Gem Trade: The Connoisseur's Guide to Precious Gemstones, 2016 Template:ISBN
  • Wyart J. Bariand P, Filippi J., "Le Lapis Lazuli de Sar-e-SAng", Revue de Geographie Physique et de Geologie Dynamique (2) Vol. XIV Pasc. 4 pp. 443–448, Paris, 1972.

External linksEdit

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