Ruby millennium love 3-1

Thousands years of Ruby love

Ruby is the first of all colored gemstones. In addition to its historical profound and its blood-like fire color. Ruby has been valued for its dazzling red for thousands of years. However, the exact time of its discovery and use as jewelry is still unclear. ?The “Arthashastra”, an ancient Indian classic from the three century BC, which describes the ancient economic and cultural details of the northern Mauryan Dynasty, including mining and metallurgy and other natural resource trading operations and the administrative procedures, including diamonds, rubies, pearls, corals, gold, silver, etc. ?State-appointed goldsmiths must have "a thorough understanding of the type, characteristics, color, weight and formation of gemstones."

In the 1st century AD, the Roman naturalist Pliny included red gemstones in the important encyclopedia “Natural History”. ?He described and discussed various gemstones, including rubies, providing information on their characteristics, origins and perceptual properties, and recording observations and Historical source on the fashion of the times, folklore and mythology.

Historical records the earliest origin of rubies comes from Sri Lanka. “Mahavamsa”, a Pali, language of Theravad , ?historical document in the fifth century AD, mentions various types of gemstones including rubies, sapphires and pearls. Recent excavations by the Sri Lankan Archaeological Department have unearthed many types of polished gemstones and beads, some of which date back to 1000 BC or even earlier; ?The history of rubies from Mogok in northern Burma can be traced back to at least the 6th century AD, ?and has been the source of the world's finest rubies for centuries.

Venetian traveler Marco Polo traveled east, aboard a Chinese ship heading west to the Persian Gulf via the East-West Passage. Various descriptions of rubies were written in his travel notes in 1292, which aroused Europe's yearning for the East, and rubies subsequently became a gem sought after by European royal families; ?Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant and traveler in the 17th century, wrote in his later years The second volume of Voyages Des Indes (Travels in India )? describes the Pegu Kingdom in Burma, and the Island of Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka). On every business trip, he would bring as many rubies back to Europe as possible and sell them to the French Emperor.

For a long time, red gemstones have not been clearly distinguished, especially red spinel, which was considered to be ruby-corundum. The most legendary "Timur Ruby" weighing 361 carats and the "Black Prince's Ruby" weighing 170 carats and set in the British Crown in 1660 were both red spinel. ?The rubies used on the crowns of the royal family, and first-rank officials in the Qing Dynasty in China, In modern testing have now been identified as almost red spinel.

Timeline of discovery of ruby origin

400 斯里蘭卡 Ratnapura

1300 阿富汗 Jegalek

1600 緬甸 抺谷 Mogok

1950 坦桑尼亞 Longido

1960 巴基斯坦 Hunz Valley

1970 肯尼亞 John Saul mine

1970 泰國 Thailand / 柬埔寨 Combodia

1980 越南 Luc Yen

1980 塔吉克斯坦 Murgab

1990 緬甸 Mong Hsu , Namya

To be continued...