In the recent past, a gem that is thought to be more precious than even gold, the elusive lapis lazuli , has received a bad reputation for being a source of illegal mining by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The brilliant, beautiful blue stone, mined from a small area of the Kokcha River valley in the remote Afghani province of Badakhshan for nearly 10,000 years, has repeatedly featured in history’s grandest civilizations – from the Indus Valley to Egypt.
The Etymology and Science of Lapis Lazuli
The name lapis lazuli comes from the Latin word lapis, which means stone, and the Persian word lazhuward, meaning blue. In Arabic, lazaward, means heaven or sky. The Romans called it sapphirus, which was in reference to the blindingly blue stone. In fact, the English word azure, Portuguese azul and the Italian azzurro are cognates of the same, rooted in the blue of lazuli.
This vivid, dark blue stone occurs in nature, like the twilight sky or the deepest ocean depths. It is sometimes graced with specks of pyrite, or fool’s gold, which sparkle like tiny stars. Lapis occurs in crystalline marble due to contact metamorphism, and the same Afghani mine in operation today was responsible for supplying lapis to the ancient Sumerians, Harappans, and Egyptians.
Crystals of lazurite (the main mineral in lapis lazuli) from the Sar-i Sang mine in Afghanistan, where lapis lazuli has been mined since the 7th millennium BC (Didier Descouens / CC BY SA 4.0 )
Lapis Lazuli’s Worldwide Trade
The presence of lapis at…
