Rocks of renown

I'm gaining interest in the rocks of Afghanistan. When I came I knew nothing about them, but have since come to understand this as the premier place in the world for producing lapis lazuli, a rock royal blue in color. There are other places that have lapis, Chile and Montana maybe, but nowhere compares to here. And they've been pulling it out of these mines for thousands of years. Below is a picture of Tutankhamen's death mask which I saw in Cairo before I knew about lapis. That means someone took lapis from Afghanistan to Egypt 3,370 years ago. That's a long time ago when earliest your ancestors might have immigrated to America is on the Mayflower 389 years ago. (Unless you're not from the New World, or the New World was the Old World to your people, to cover all eventualities. It's a long time).

It turns out Afghanistan also has caches of spinel and ruby. Throughout history, spinel has been confused with ruby. In part, this is because spinel is often found in the same deposits. Gem spinel is a magnesium aluminum oxide, while ruby (corundum) is an aluminum oxide. In deposits where both ruby and red spinel are found, spinel is typically more common than ruby. This is because, when both magnesium and aluminum are present, spinel grows. Only after the magnesium is exhausted, does ruby get a chance to crystallize. This makes sense as the words used here, also documented in these articles, are lal and yaqut, seemingly interchangeable words for pink, red, and purple rocks.

In addition to the above link, here is another fascinating article if all of the sudden you, too, are interested in the rocks of Afghanistan. These articles argue that the crown jewels of the Ottoman Empire, Iran, Russia, and the UK all featuring stunning spinels perhaps misattributed to Burma or Sri Lanka - came from Afghanistan.


Tutankahmen's Mask


Imperial Russian Crown