Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones

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Hettie Judah breaks her book down by types of stones into these categories;Stones and Powers, Sacred Stones, Stones and Stories, Stone Technology, Shapes in Stones and Living Stones. Writing with humor, compassion, and wit (I cackled out loud more times than I can count), Hettie leads us sure-footedly on our craggy journey down a glittering path of 60 mineralogical eccentricities, ancient souvenirs of deep-Earth drama, and travelogues that cross the strata of time as well as space. Her stories also bear out the tragic pattern of so much engagement with the natural world - what begins in wonder leads to greed andrapacious extraction. Not yet ready to leave this post-book mental space now lit crystalline and glittering with the fruits of the earth thanks to Hettie’s heady prose, I thought I might ask the author and art historian a few questions–which she kindly answered for me in this blog post https://unquietthings.

I think the book could've also benefited from more pictures, rather than just the single picture of each stone at the beginning of a chapter.

The content was also very interesting and fun to read, the stones really came to life through 2-3 page stories of their history. Lapidarium weaves the surprising stories of the 60 most fascinating stones into a rich cultural history: from the red ground hematite pigment our cave-painting ancestors used and the mystery behind the tuff Easter Island heads, to the columbite that caused the Playstation War and the intriguing history of the cairngorm crystal ball, to the scandalous story of Flint Jack, whose forgeries still populate many museums in the UK today. Find out how a Greek monster created coral , moon rock explains the history of Earth's only satellite and obsidian inspired the world's favourite computer game. Not all the stories are happy - for instance, you'll learn about the past and present abuses involved in the coltan and coal mining industries - but they are such interesting introductions to all kinds of topics you might never have heard of. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

From the hematite used in cave paintings to the moldavite that became a TikTok sensation; from the stolen sandstone of Scone to the unexpected acoustics of Stonehenge; from crystal balls to compasses, rocks and minerals have always been central to our story. The essays are written from a British point of view, which took a little getting used to (especially some of the pronunciations in audio book), but it was very well done. This book is a fascinating glimpse into the world of precious stones and what they have meant to people over the years. years ago Babylonians constructed lapidaries – books that tried to pin down the magical secrets of rocks.She breaks down the history of each individual stone and how it’s impacted the human race through history. As a broadcaster she can been heard (and sometimes seen) on programmes including BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and Art That Made Us. The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Beautifully illustrated with color-coding near the binding of each section of the author's selection of stones. Amongst these essays exploring how human culture has formed stone and, conversely, the roles stone has played in forming human culture, one will read of the Meat-Shaped Stone of Taiwan, a piece of banded jasper that resembles a tender piece of mouth-watering braised pork belly, There is the soap opera melodrama of Pele’s Hair, golden strands of volcanic glass, spun into hair-fine threads by volcanic gasses and blown across the landscape.

Also points out that the provenances of most of the most famous jewels are fabricated (especially the ones claiming to go back centuries). Might be a good reference for those seeking this type of information, and I discovered it was not me. A collection of extravagant stories about artists, miners, princes, chancers, criminals - and above all collectors . Behind the glitter of jewellers' windows lies the shadowy back-rooms of polluted water sources, conflict diamonds and the mercury poisoning of artisanal goldworkers.From the elegance of emerald moons to humble fossilized feces, from violent lunar origin stories to simple earthen pigments, Lapidarium is richly abundant with interesting facts, poignant stories, and weird anecdotes about stones. It's got history, art, science, anthropology, geology, archaeology, history of fashion, religion, culture, folklore, industrial history, and so much more. She weaves stone through human history showing us how we gave different types of stone the power of royalty and worship. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The moment I stopped reading, it literally left my head and I couldn't tell you a single thing that had been mentioned so far.