When were gems discovered? Detailed answer

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When were gems discovered? Detailed answer

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When were gems discovered?

No one knows when gemstones were first discovered, but man has admired them since ancient times. For thousands of years, jewelry has been worn to ward off spirits and disease. Even today, some people believe in the special power of stones.

The first mention of precious stones we find in the Bible. In the 28th chapter of the book of the Old Testament, it speaks of a body plate worn by a high church minister, Aaron. The plate was decorated with 12 precious stones. The ancient Egyptians used gemstones in ornaments and jewelry. They were skilled in the art of working gemstones, and their designs on stones have survived to this day.

The Egyptians wore amulets known as scarabs. These were precious stones cut in the shape of the sacred Egyptian beetle. It was believed that the one who wears scarabs is protected by good spirits. In ancient times, different gemstones differed in color. The name "ruby" was given to all red gemstones. All green stones were called emerald, and blue - sapphire.

Later it turned out that some gems were harder and more durable than others. It became obvious that the value of a stone depends not only on color, brightness, rarity, but also on its hardness. For example, a diamond is considered today the most precious, because in addition to its magnificence, it also has the greatest hardness among all stones. Many stones are called precious. But in reality, this name refers only to the four most valuable stones - diamond, ruby, emerald and sapphire.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Who discovered Alaska?

When white people appeared in Alaska, they discovered that Eskimos, Aleuts and Indians live here. Alaska is one of the largest territories in the world ever discovered and developed by a white man. At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, Russian sailors were moving through Siberia to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1728, Vitus Bering, a Dane in the service of the Russian government, sailed east of Kamchatka. He sailed along the island of St. Lawrence, but did not reach mainland Alaska. In 1741, Bering led a second expedition on two small ships. He commanded one of these ships, the St. Peter, and the St. Paul was commanded by Alexei Chirikov. The ships were scattered by the storm, but they both reached Alaska.

For the next two centuries, Russian hunters hunted furs in the waters of Alaska. They founded many settlements, and in many places there are still quaint churches built by the Aleuts and Indians under the leadership of Russian missionaries. Subsequently, the coast of Alaska was mastered by the sailors of Spain, France and Great Britain. But it was the Russians who used Alaska as a source of furs, which they supplied in huge quantities to European capitals. Then the number of fur animals began to decrease, and by the 1820s, the Russians began to leave the coast of Alaska.

Russian Tsar Alexander II was not too interested in Alaska. Lincoln-era Secretary of State William H. Seward persuaded his government to buy Alaska from the Russians, and in 1867 Alaska was sold to the United States for $7, less than two cents an acre! Today Alaska is not just the forty-ninth state of the USA, the value of this territory can hardly be measured in dollars!

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