Lapis armenus

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Lapis armenus, also known as Armenian stone or lapis stellatus, in natural history, is a variety of precious stone, resembling lapis lazuli, except that it is softer, and instead of veins of pyrite, is intermixed with green. "The Armenian stone" is so similar to lapis lazuli that it has often not been distinguished from it; [1] [2] Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary for instance treats the two terms as synonyms. [3] The Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities 1550-1820 defines lapis armenus as

Armenian stone, or azurite, a naturally occurring basic copper carbonate, originally from Armenia, but later from Germany, from which blue bice was prepared. It was often found in association with another copper carbonate, malachite from which green bice was prepared... Probably because they were both blue, blue bice was sometimes misinterpreted to mean lapis lazuli. [4]

Chemically however lapis lazuli is not at all similar.

Herman Boerhaave believed it rather to rank among semi-metals, and supposed it was composed of both metal and earth. He added that it only differs from lazuli in degree of maturity, and that both of them seem to contain arsenic.

It has been found in Tirol, Hungary, and Transylvania, and used both in mosaic work, to make the blue color azure, and as a treatment of melancholia. [5]

The Encyclopedia Perthensis of 1816 notes that Armenian stone "was anciently brought of Armenia, but now found in Germany, and Tyrol". [6]

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3
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.

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Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France. The mineral, a basic carbonate with the chemical formula Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2, has been known since ancient times, and was mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History under the Greek name kuanos (κυανός: "deep blue," root of English cyan) and the Latin name caeruleum. Since antiquity, azurite's exceptionally deep and clear blue has been associated with low-humidity desert and winter skies. The modern English name of the mineral reflects this association, since both azurite and azure are derived via Arabic from the Persian lazhward (لاژورد), an area known for its deposits of another deep-blue stone, lapis lazuli ("stone of azure").

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<i>Encyclopædia Perthensis</i>

The Encyclopædia Perthensis was a publishing project around the Morison Press in Perth, Scotland undertaken in the 1790s, with the involvement of James Morison. Morison went into partnership with Colin Mitchel and Co.

Copper carbonate may refer to :

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In heraldry, azure is the tincture with the colour blue, and belongs to the class of tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else is marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation.
The term azure shares origin with the Spanish word "azul", which refers to the same color, deriving from hispanic Arabic lazawárd the name of the deep blue stone now called lapis lazuli. The word was adopted into Old French by the 12th century, after which the word passed into use in the blazon of coats of arms.

Shortugai Trading colony of the Indus Valley Civilization established around 2000 BC

Shortugai (Shortughai), in Darqad District of northern Afghanistan, was a trading colony of the Indus Valley Civilization established around 2000 BC on the Oxus river near the lapis lazuli mines. It is considered to be the northernmost settlement of the Indus Valley Civilization. According to Bernard Sergent, "not one of the standard characteristics of the Harappan cultural complex is missing from it".

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Imports to Ur reflect the cultural and trade connections of the Sumerian city of Ur. During the period of the Early Dynastic III royal cemetery, Ur was importing elite goods from geographically distant places. These objects literacu include precious metals such as gold and silver, and semi-precious stones, namely lapis lazuli and carnelian. These objects are all the more impressive considering the distance from which they traveled to reach Mesopotamia and Ur specifically.

<i>Lows Encyclopaedia</i>

Low's Encyclopædia is an early American encyclopedia, titled The New and Complete American Encyclopædia or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. It was published in New York City, from 1805 to 1811. Consisting of seven volumes quarto, it is noteworthy among America's earliest encyclopedias for having been written in the United States, as opposed to being an American reprint of a British work, as were, for examples, Dobson's Encyclopedia, the Bradford printing of Rees's Cyclopædia, Samuel A. Mitchell's American printing (1816) of the British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1809), or the Birch and Small printing of the Domestic Encyclopedia.

The ancient Sumerian economy was the systems of trade in ancient Mesopotamia. Sumerian city-states relied on trade due to a lack of certain materials. Thus resulting in Sumer needing to trade. These trade networks extended to places such as Oman, Arabia, Anatolia, Indus River Valley, and the Iranian Plateau. Sumerians also bought and sold property. However, land owned by temples was permanent. It could not be bought or sold. There were three types of land. Nigenna, Kurra, and Urulal. Nigenna land belonged to the temple. Kurra land belonged to the people working in the temple. And Urulal land was land exchanged for other land. In order to buy things the Sumerians could use silver, barley, or cattle as currency.

References

  1. Simply Crystals Jackson, p. 102
  2. George P. Merrill, Handbook and Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Gems and Precious Stones , p. 201, US National Museum Bull. 118, 1922
  3. 1998 Webster's
  4. "Lapis armenus". Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities 1550-1820.
  5. Burton, Robert (1621). "SUBSECT. II.—Simples purging Melancholy downward". The Anatomy of Melancholy . Archived from the original on 7 November 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2006.
  6. Encyclopaedia Perthensis (1816). Encyclopaedia Perthensis; or, Universal dictionary of Knowledge; Supp. p. 526.