Lapis lazuli: earth’s greatest blues

A bit of lapis lazuli rock with pyrite mined in Afghanistan in January 2008.
| Photograph Credit score: Hannes Grobe (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Lapis lazuli is a vividly blue rock, generally with streaks of gold, that has been identified for millennia for its eye-popping color and use as a semi-precious gemstone.

It will get its color from the presence of an uncommon mineral known as lazurite (25-40%). Its blueness is dependent upon the quantity and construction of sulphur on this mineral. The presence of calcite can cut back the blueness whereas the golden sparkle comes from the presence of pyrites. Another minerals, like diopside and sodalite, are current in smaller portions.

Lapis lazuli has been discovered in lots of international locations up to now, together with Chile, Russia, and the US, however the highest high quality rock comes from Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, the place folks have been mining it for greater than 6,000 years.

In historical instances, merchants in India imported lapis lazuli from Badakhshan, maybe as way back as 1000 BC. Archaeologists have additionally discovered decorative lapis lazuli ornaments within the stays of Indus civilisation websites together with Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. The traditional Egyptians had been additionally identified to make use of it to make jewelry and to powder it to make use of as eye shadow.

Within the Renaissance interval, artistes in Europe floor lapis lazuli down into ultramarine, an costly pigment they used of their work.

The rock will get its title from two languages: lapis is the Latin for ‘stone’ whereas ‘lazuli’ comes from the Persian phrase lazhward, which means ‘blue’.