Stones have formed tradition for so long as tradition has existed. Their uncanny form has led us to inform tales – of trolls disguised as boulders, of maidens cursed for dancing on the sabbath, of a snake-haired lady whose eyes petrified. They’ve offered us with instruments, from axe heads to the uncommon minerals utilized in digicam telephones. And so they have served as signifiers of energy and wealth, usually derived in flip from mines and the commerce routes that distribute their riches.

We consider stone as one thing steady and unmoving, however that’s only a matter of the timescale by which you have a look at issues. My new ebook, Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones, accommodates 60 tales, every a couple of completely different stone. Listed below are 10 memorable rocks that roll throughout its pages …

Ruby

Gold Salamander (mid-Sixteenth century), Ulster Museum

In 1967 underwater archaeologist Robert Sténuit led an expedition within the surging icy waters close to Lacada Level, off the Northern Irish coast, recovering objects from the wreck of the Girona, a galleass that went down in 1588. Sténuit’s group discovered gold, cash and weapons – but additionally an awesome amount of jewelry. The Girona had been a part of the Spanish Armada, and had the invasion gone to plan, the gems would have shone from the conquerors’ robes as they sailed into London in triumph. This ruby pendant was as soon as an emblem of Spain’s energy and attain. The salamander design is impressed by the axolotl – an amphibian creature commemorated by the Aztecs – whereas the rubies come from Burma. Rubies have been believed to glow with internal gentle, and salamanders to stay in fireplace: an auspicious pairing for a talisman worn into battle.

Basalt

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970), Utah

In 1970, a contact on the Utah Parks Division advised artist Robert Smithson that north of Lucin Cutoff, the water of the Nice Salt Lake had turned the color of tomato soup. For an artist whose materials was the panorama itself, this was an irresistible lure. Together with his spouse, artist Nancy Holt, he flew to Utah, and drove across the lake to pick a web site for a piece composed from the earth, water and sky. Spiral Jetty was imagined as a whirlpool, vortex, galaxy, and the spiral of geological time twisting out of sight. The work is sort of half a kilometre lengthy, constructed from 6,650 tonnes of native black basalt. Through the years it has disappeared and reappeared as the peak of the water fluctuates: a part of the ecology of the lake, this tough, rocky construction is now wearing a carapace of salt crystals.

Calculi

We consider stone as inert, set other than the animal kingdom, however it could actually additionally kind quick – simply look inside your kettle. Stony concretions (calculi) additionally kind contained in the physique: gallstones within the gallbladder, nephroliths within the kidneys, cystoliths within the bladder, enteroliths within the gastrointestinal tract, rhinoliths within the nasal passages, and so forth. These calculi have been collected by the eminent British crystallographer, jail reformer and peace campaigner Kathleen Lonsdale. In 1962, Lonsdale was approached by the Salvation Military for assist analysing bladder stones faraway from youngsters in India. Lonsdale’s pioneering examine, revealed in Science journal in 1971, opens with the thigh-clenching revelation that “the biggest human stone recorded weighed over 1.36 kilograms.”

Lingbi

Gongshi, lingbi limestone, date unknown

For collectors, probably the most extremely prized of China’s dramatic rocks is the gongshi – recognized in English as a “scholar’s rock” or “spirit stone” and in Japanese as suiseki – an object of evocative, dynamic kind used as a spotlight for contemplation. Positioned on carved picket stands that maintain them regular of their most fascinating place, gongshi might be small as a thumb or tall as a young person. Traditionally, probably the most beneficial gonshi are Lingbishi (Lingbi stones): tortured, twisting fragments of fine-grained limestone from Lingbi county within the north of Anhui province.

Emerald

Emerald and diamond brooch (c.1910) as soon as property of the maharani of Kapurthala

The maharani of Kapurthala’s favorite jewel was a crescent emerald which she noticed on her husband’s oldest elephant. Portraits of this legendary magnificence present her carrying the large stone simply because the elephant had, on her brow. The Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala fell in love with the Spanish dancer Anita Delgado Briones at first sight (as per fairytale conference) when he noticed her carry out on the Gran Kursal cabaret in Madrid. After accepting Jagatjit Singh’s proposal Anita submitted to the total Pygmalion remedy, studying to skate, journey a horse, play tennis, billiards and the piano. She acquired a number of languages and was rigorously schooled in etiquette earlier than her marriage. The coveted crescent-shaped emerald was offered on her nineteenth birthday as a reward for studying Urdu.

Pink Ancaster

Barbara Hepworth, Mom and Little one (1934), Hepworth Wakefield

For Barbara Hepworth, stone was not an inert substance: she responded powerfully to the fabric itself, its particularities and associations. Mom and Little one is carved in pink Ancaster, a compact oolitic limestone from Lincolnshire used predominantly as a constructing materials: a sensible British stone. Mom and Little one is in two elements: the “mom” is rounded like an outdated mountain, with a valley forming her lap. On this stands the small determine of the ‘baby’, impartial, but shut, leaning in towards her. Hepworth provided a brand new interpretation of an historic topic – one for an period of progressive relationships and Freudian psychoanalysis – two people, minimize from one stone, however finally separate.

Opal

“Eric”, opalised pliosaur skeleton excavated at Coober Pedy, Australian Museum, Sydney

For the reason that nineteenth century, Australia has been the world’s major supply of opals. Essentially the most beneficial are black opals from Lightning Ridge, their shadowy depths shot by means of with iridescent fireplace the color of malachite and lapis lazuli. Mined since 1915, Coober Pedy stays the best supply of opals by quantity, however the market is shifting. In 2008, Ethiopia emerged as a brand new supply for opals of remarkable limpidity and play of color.^{Opals are composed of spheres of silica eroded from sandstone, carried downwards by water by means of faults and cracks till they attain an impermeable layer the place they pool and lithify. Typically the faults invaded by the silica-rich water are these shaped by plant or animal stays, that are slowly remodeled into opalescent fossils. In 1987, a miner at Coober Pedy discovered the totally opalised stays of a pliosaur, dubbed Eric.}

Nephrite

Burial Ensemble of Dou Wan, Han Dynasty, Metropolitan Museum of Artwork

Nephrite is the jade of historic China – a stone extra valuable than gold, the sturdiness of which served as a fabric connection to an individual’s ancestors, and urged indomitability and the endurance of non-public legacy. The follow of carrying jade into the afterlife was elaborated within the Han interval (202 BCE–220 CE). Early members of the Liu household, their consorts, and the high-ranking elite have been buried in full fits of jade, comprised of interlinked plaques of stone. Earlier than the physique was positioned within the tomb, its 9 orifices have been first sealed with jade plugs. Jade was thought to advertise longevity and would thus shield the physique from decay.

Quartz

Gram Parsons in his customized “Nudie Go well with” (1969)

In 1913 a child referred to as Nuta Kotlyarenko left Kyiv and had his identify mangled by US immigration. By the Nineteen Thirties, he was crafting rhinestone-encrusted G-strings and nipple pasties for New York’s burlesque performers. The next decade, as Nudie Cohn, he moved to Hollywood and took his rhinestones with him. Faceted artificial crystals have been a phenomenon of the late nineteenth century, and on stage, beneath electrical lights, they have been mesmerising. Nudie’s Rodeo Taylors peddled a stunning peacock model for males that by the Nineteen Seventies made the time period “rhinestone cowboy” synonymous with music stardom. In 1969 Rolling Stone portrayed Gram Parsons in his white Nudie go well with, the entrance and sides splashed with rhinestone outlines of the hemp leaves, opium poppies and barbiturates that may carry him off 4 years later.

Turquoise

Serpent masks of Tlāloc (c. 1400-1521) British Museum

The storm god Tlāloc is a blue-faced divinity related to fertility and water. Gummed on to a picket base, two completely different shades of turquoise describe a pair of serpents that kind the god’s face, criss-crossing each other on the nostril and ringing the attention sockets. The Aztecs valued turquoise as extremely because the Spanish valued their gold. In Náhuatl the phrase for the blue stone is xihuitl and it was synonymous with the standard of preciousness, used admiringly as one may use “golden” in English – a turquoise baby, turquoise phrases. Based on the Codex Mendoza, three provinces in Aztec territory needed to pay tribute to the emperor in turquoise: beads and mosaic tiles have been tantamount to a type of foreign money.