Posted by
pearl3 on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 2:55:22 AM
For many Americans, turquoise seems a distinctively American gemstone -- mined in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, and with a long history in native American jewelry.
But turquoise has been an important gemstone in many eastern cultures for thousands of years. This is reflected in the English name for the gem, since it was first brought to Europe by traders from Asia Minor. But probably the turquoise came from famous turquoise mines in Iran or Egypt, not Turkey.
Turquoise, along with lapis lazuli, is one of the oldest gemstone materials known to man. The color of turquoise is so unique that this has become the standard word we use to describe the slightly greenish shade of cyan and similar colors.
The legendary home of the world's finest turquoise is the mines at Nishapur in Iran. Turquoise became a major trade and barter item for the early Persians. Persian turquoise was found in ancient graves in Turkistan and, in the 1st to 3rd century A.D., in graves throughout the Caucasus.
For centuries, the most valuable turquoise came from Iran but today deposits are also found in Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Israel, Egypt, Mexico and Tanzania. The name "Persian Turquoise" is now generally used to refer to any turquoise stone that does not have the black or brown veining commonly found in turquoise mined in the United States and used in a style of jewelry created by the American Indians.
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