HISTORIC USES

A delectable assortment of artefacts carved from Lapis have been traced back to Bronze Age civilisations from around 3000 BCE. The stone was of great religious significance and typically reflected the high status of elites and leaders. Decorative inlaid items, ornaments, religious icons, votive offerings, pendant brooches, beaded jewellery, mosaics, crockery, and combs are amongst the historic finds from worldwide locations.

Near the Euphrates River in Iraq, more than 6000 carved Lapis statuettes were discovered in ancient royal Sumerian tombs. The carvings included deer, birds, and rodents as well as bowls, plates, beads, and cylindrical seals.
Lapis Lazuli was a particular favourite amongst ancient Egyptian elites. The tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharoah Tutankhamun was extensively decorated with Lapis. It was even used to adorn the eyebrows, eyelids, and kohl marks of the young kings death shroud.

The Egyptians also favoured ground Lapis as a pharmaceutical ingredient. According to the ancient Egypytian Ebers Papyrus; a “ductile dough” of ground Lapis, crocodile dung and honey was reportedly effective when applied to afflictions of the eye such as cataracts, and was also believed to help eliminate unsightly aural blood vessels. It wasn’t just this area of the world that valued Lapis Lazuli for it’s medicinal applications. Though the Western world recognised the toxicity of Lapis, it was still used as a remedial ingredient The material was subjected to heating and numerous washes in order to render it a useful emetic, as well as a cure for epilepsy, headaches, tumours, vertigo, leprosy and venereal diseases!

Powdered Lapis Lazuli was also historically used as a cosmetic eye shadow. It was used by famed beauty Egyptian Queen Cleopatra herself to create her signature eye makeup design Lapis has also been used as an artists pigment and fabric dye.
During the Renaissance era, painters would infuse finely ground Lapis with melted wax, oils, and pine resin to create the pigment ultramarine, which came to be the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. The name was taken from the Latin “ultramarinus” which translates to "beyond the ocean" a dreamy ode to its distant overseas origins. Michelangelo’s beautiful blue skies in the Sistine Chapel relied heavily on the lively blues of Lapis, Vincent Van Gogh used ultramarine to paint “The Starry Night” in 1889, and Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer created his captivating painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” using ultramarine for her striking headscarf. The blue pigment came at such a prohibitively high price that it was only used by the most accomplished artists, or those who had wealthy clients to support the additional expense. Where it was affordable, the paint was used sparingly, for the clothing or details of just the central figures of the paintings. One figure who was traditionally portrayed in ultramarine blues were depictions of The virgin Mary of Nazereth, whose robes and veil were usually blue. The use of Lapis as a pigment in oil paint largely came to a head at the beginning of the 19th century, when a cheaper but chemically similar synthetic was created by French chemist JeanBaptiste Guimet. Today, when genuine ultramarine is required by artists striving to recreate renaissance techniques, the opaque vivid blue pigment can retail for over $1,000/lb.

As mentioned in several of my other crystal blogs, prior to scientific tests, categorising was largely done on the basis of aesthetics. Many red stones were referred to as rubies, most green stones were misidentified as emeralds, and it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that ancient references to "Sapphire" often refer in fact, to Lapis Lazuli. There are several biblical mentions of "sapphire" in the Old Testament in particular, but since sapphire was not known before the Roman Empire, these most likely referred to Lapis.
In his book on stones, the Greek scientist Theophrastus described "the sapphirus, which is speckled with gold," a description which accurately matches Lapis Lazuli, but not the blue variety of corundum that we know as sapphire.



By Charlie Forerdark ❤

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