I have a fascination for gemstones, and I have done a lot of research on gems. I learned how they were sourced, and how the stones are created into jewelry, and I just love it. Archelogy gives the earliest picture, its attempt to tell us when and where each gemstone was used , how it was used, how it was fashioned, and whether it was traded. Recorded history provides insight into early naming, classification, and everyday significance of gems, but especially the stories that are so fascinating. Early humans were decorating themselves with shell, pieces of bones, teeth and pebbles by at least the upper paleolithic period (25,000-12, 0000 BC) Most of the stones used in early civilizations were opaque and soft with bright colors of beautiful patterns. Carnelian and rock crystal beads were fashioned at Jarmo in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in the seventh millennium B.C. Engraved cylinder seals appeared about a thousand years later in soft stones such as steatite and marble. By the late millennium in the Near East cylinder seals were made from rock crystal quartz, a hard stone in addition to the soft stones. A women's belt from the end of the third millennium B.C. was found in Harappa an ancient center of Indus civilization, decorated with colorful opaque stones, red Melian, green steatite , jasper, amazonite, jade and lapis lazuli, these gems represent the wealth of gems available then and mow.
