And cylinder seals

There are a few gems, such as long and romantic history, such as lapis lazuli. Although found in several locations around the world, the best lapis comes from the province of Badakhshan in northern Afghanistan, where he cut a continuous period of more than 6000 years.

Lapis was one of the materials, cultured pearl, gemstones. It has been used for amulets sacred in ancient Egypt from the Assyrians and Babylonians for cylinder seals. Historians say that Cleopatra powdered lapis lazuli used for shadows. Ancient royal tombs of the Sumerian city of Ur, near the Euphrates River in Iraq below contained more than 6000 beautifully executed lapis lazuli statuettes of birds, deer and rodents, as well as dishes, beads, and cylinder seals.

blue powder was also the source for the blue pigment known as ultramarine, used by artists of the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Synthetic version of ultramarine was in the early 19 th century discovered and fell down on the use of expensive pigment lapis lazuli quickly.

Lapis is one of the few stones that a stone instead of minerals. This is because, lapis lazuli, akoya pearl necklace, usually a mixture of 3 minerals: stains, calcite and pyrite. Stains, mineral complexes containing sulfur is the main component of lapis lazuli and gives it a bright blue color. Calcite is calcium carbonate, white minerals responsible for the White Stripes in many samples of lapis lazuli. Pyrite is iron sulfide, gold and white color makes recognition of the distinctive glazes.