Minerals Used In Jewelry

Minerals Used In Jewelry

By this time, too, there was a surprisingly large variety of mines. Stone as well as clay bricks had come into widespread use for building palaces and temples. Building stone granite and sandstone, as well as limestone was mined in quarries. Marble was also quarried, for statues and to beautify temples and palaces. Lime was very important, since from it was manufactured much of the plaster employed in finishing individual rooms.

Vast quantities of clay were taken from the clay pits for the making of cooking pots and vases and bricks. Clay was also used in Babylonia, instead of papyrus, for writing letters and business documents. And then there were the smaller mines whence came the gorgeous gem stones so beloved by the kings and ladies. Another product of those early mines was jade, a smooth green stone very useful in making chisels. Jade tools were even harder than the metal tools men possessed six thousand years ago.