Yellow-red chalcedony variety
Carnelian
(also spelled
cornelian
)
[3]
is a brownish-red
mineral
commonly used as a
semiprecious stone
. Similar to carnelian is
sard
, which is generally harder and darker; the difference is not rigidly defined, and the two names are often used interchangeably. Both carnelian and sard are varieties of the
silica
mineral
chalcedony
colored by impurities of
iron oxide
. The color can vary greatly, ranging from pale orange to an intense almost-black coloration. Significant localities include
Yanacodo
(
Peru
);
Ratnapura
(
Sri Lanka
); and
Thailand
.
[2]
It has been found in
Indonesia
,
Brazil
,
India
,
Russia
(
Siberia
), and
Germany
.
[
citation needed
]
In the
United States
, the official State Gem of
Maryland
is also a variety of carnelian called
Patuxent River stone
.
[4]
History
[
edit
]
The red variety of chalcedony has been known to be used as beads since the Early Neolithic in Bulgaria. The first faceted (with constant 16+16=32 facets on each side of the bead) carnelian beads are described from the Varna
Chalcolithic
necropolis (middle of the 5th millennium BC).
The
bow drill
was used to drill holes into carnelian in
Mehrgarh
in the 4th?5th millennium BC.
[6]
Carnelian was recovered from
Bronze Age
Minoan
layers at
Knossos
on
Crete
in a form that demonstrated its use in decorative arts;
[7]
this use dates to approximately 1800
BC
. Carnelian was used widely during Roman times to make
engraved gems
for signet or
seal rings
for imprinting a seal with wax on correspondence or other important documents, as hot wax does not stick to carnelian.
[8]
Sard was used for
Assyrian
cylinder seals
,
Egyptian
and
Phoenician
scarabs
, and early
Greek
and Etruscan gems.
[9]
The
Hebrew
odem
(also translated as
sardius
), was mounted on both shoulder's of the High Priest's robe, also it was the first stone in the
High Priest's breastplate
, was a red stone, probably sard but perhaps red
jasper
.
[9]
In
Revelation 4:3
, the One seated on the heavenly throne seen in the vision of
John the apostle
is said to "look like jasper and
σαρδ??
(
sardius
transliterated)." And likewise it is in Revelation 21:20 as one of the precious stones in the foundations of the wall of the heavenly city.
[10]
There is a
Neo-Assyrian
seal made of carnelian in the Western Asiatic Seals collection of the
British Museum
that shows
Ishtar
-
Gula
as a star goddess. She is holding a ring of royal authority and is seated on a throne. She is shown with the spade of
Marduk
(his symbol), Sibbiti (seven) gods, the stylus of
Nabu
and a worshiper. An 8th century BC carnelian seal from the collection of the
Ashmolean Museum
shows Ishtar-Gula with her dog facing the spade of Marduk and his red dragon.
[11]
Etymology
[
edit
]
Although now the more common term, "carnelian" is a 16th-century corruption of the 14th-century word "cornelian" (and its associated orthographies corneline and cornalyn).
[12]
Cornelian, cognate with similar words in several
Romance languages
, comes from the
Mediaeval Latin
corneolus
, itself derived from the
Latin
word
cornum
, the
cornel cherry
,
[13]
whose translucent red fruits resemble the stone. The
Oxford English Dictionary
calls "carnelian" a perversion of "cornelian," by subsequent analogy with the Latin word
caro, carnis
("flesh"). According to
Pliny the Elder
, sard derived its name from the city of
Sardis
in
Lydia
from which it came, and according to others, may ultimately be related to the
Persian
word
???
(
sered
, "yellowish-red").
[9]
Another possible derivation is from the Greek
σ?ρξ
(
sarx
, "flesh"); compare the surer etymology of
onyx
, which comes from Greek
?νυξ
(
onyx
, "claw, fingernail"), presumably because onyx with flesh-colored and white bands can resemble a fingernail.
[14]
Distinction between carnelian and sard
[
edit
]
The names carnelian and sard are often used interchangeably, but they can also be used to describe distinct subvarieties. The general differences are as follows:
[9]
All of these properties vary across a continuum, so the boundary between carnelian and sard is inherently blurry.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Rudolf Duda and Lubos Rejl:
Minerals of the World
(Arch Css, 1990)
- ^
a
b
Carnelian on Gemdat.org
- ^
Agnes, Michael, ed. (2001).
Webster's New World College Dictionary
(4th ed.).
- ^
"Maryland State Gemstone: Patuxent River Stone (Agate)"
.
- ^
Kulke, Hermann & Rothermund, Dietmar (2004).
A History of India
. Routledge. 22.
ISBN
0-415-32920-5
.
- ^
C. Michael Hogan,
Knossos fieldnotes
, Modern Antiquarian (2007)
- ^
Section 12 of the translation of
Weilue
- a 3rd-century Chinese text by John Hill under "carnelian" and note 12.12 (17)
- ^
a
b
c
d
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Sard"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^
Revelation 4:3
- ^
Dalley, Stephanie (29 November 2007).
Esther's Revenge at Susa: From Sennacherib to Ahasuerus
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
9780199216635
. Retrieved
24 August
2019
.
- ^
"Cornelian"
.
Oxford English Dictionary
. Oxford University Press
. Retrieved
14 February
2012
.
- ^
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Carnelian"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^
"onyx"
.
etymonline.com
. Retrieved
2019-09-26
.
- ^
"Site officiel du musee du Louvre"
.
cartelfr.louvre.fr
.
- ^
Guimet, Musee (2016).
Les Cites oubliees de l'Indus: Archeologie du Pakistan
(in French). FeniXX reedition numerique. pp. 354?355.
ISBN
9782402052467
.
- ^
Art of the first cities: the third millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus
. p.
395
.
- ^
Nandagopal, Prabhakar (2018).
Decorated Carnelian Beads from the Indus Civilization Site of Dholavira (Great Rann of Kachchha, Gujarat)
. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
ISBN
978-1-78491-917-7
.
- ^
"Egyptian - Necklace"
.
The Walters Art Museum
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Allchin, B
. 1979. "The agate and carnelian industry of Western India and Pakistan". ? In:
South Asian Archaeology
1975. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 91?105.
- Beck, H. C. 1933. "Etched carnelian beads". ?
The Antiquaries Journal
, 13, 4, 384?398.
- Bellina, B. 2003. "Beads, social change and interaction between India and South-east Asia". ?
Antiquity
, 77, 296, 285?297.
- Brunet, O. 2009. "Bronze and Iron Age carnelian bead production in the UAE and Armenia: new perspectives". ?
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies
, 39, 57?68.
- Carter, A. K., L. Dussubieux. 2016. "Geologic provenience analysis of agate and carnelian beads using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS): A case study from Iron Age Cambodia and Thailand". ?
J. Archeol. Sci.: Reports
, 6, 321?331.
- Cornaline de l'Inde.
Des pratiques techniques de Cambay aux techno-systemes de l'Indus
(Ed. J.-C. Roux). 2000. Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris, 558 pp.
- Glover, I. 2001. "Cornaline de l'Inde. Des pratiques techniques de Cambay aux techno-systemes de l'Indus (sous la direction de V. Roux). ?
Bulletin de l'Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient
, 88, 376?381.
- Inizan, M.-L. 1999. "La cornaline de l’Indus a la Mesopotamie, production et circulation: la voie du Golfe au IIIe millenaire". ? In:
Cornaline et pierres precieuses. De Sumer a l'Islam
(Ed. by F. Tallon), Musee du Louvre, Paris, 127?140.
- Insoll, T., D. A. Polya, K. Bhan, D. Irving, K. Jarvis. 2004. "Towards an understanding of the carnelian bead trade from Western India to sub-Saharan Africa: the application of UV-LA-ICP-MS to carnelian from Gujarat, India, and West Africa". ?
J. Archaeol. Sci.
, 31, 8, 1161?1173.
- Kostov, R. I.; Pelevina, O. (2008). "Complex faceted and other carnelian beads from the Varna Chalcolithic necropolis: archaeogemmological analysis".
Proceedings of the International Conference "Geology and Archaeomineralogy". Sofia, 29?30 October 2008
. Sofia: Publishing House "St. Ivan Rilski": 67?72.
- Mackay, E. 1933. "Decorated carnelian beads". ?
Man
, 33, Sept., 143?146.
- Theunissen, R. 2007. "The agate and carnelian ornaments". ? In:
The Excavations of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao
(Eds. C. Higham, A. Kijngam, S. Talbot). The Thai Fine Arts Department, Bangkok, 359?377.
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Carnelian
at Wikimedia Commons
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