In Persia turquoise symbolized water and victory, in Mesoamerica it was associated with creative power, while the Egyptians called it mefkat, which meant “joy and delight.” It is a fitting term for turquoise: after all, its luminous color does evoke both of these feelings.
Turquoise appeared in Europe with the caravans of medieval merchants to whom it owes its name. It sounds similar in most modern European languages and derives from the French words pierre turquoise, meaning “turquoise stone.” However, the gem was a source of fascination in much earlier times. What became nothing more than an expensive, beautiful ornament for Europeans, carried a plethora of sophisticated meanings in other parts of the world.
From a geological point of view, turquoise is a relatively rare mineral, consisting of hydrated aluminum phosphate and copper, which is the source of its characteristic shades of green and blue. Variations in the proportions of these elements, as well as admixtures of other substances such as iron and oxides, affect its color and form. Therefore, it is simply impossible to determine the exact color of turquoise stones; some are greenish, some are bluish-green, and some, which are considered the most valuable, have an intense blue tint. They are usually opaque, although there also exist very rare, translucent specimens. Moreover, turquoise stones are fairly soft, which makes them easy to process. Unfortunately, they can fade over time. This explains the undersaturated colors of some ancient turquoise artifacts that have survived the whirlwind of history.
Miners and the Alphabet
It is difficult to say exactly when and where turquoise began to be extracted. An early extraction site may have been the Sinai Peninsula: locals mined the blue stones as early as 5000 BC. This is evidenced by pieces of high-quality turquoise found in tombs on the El-Qaa Plain, in the southwestern part of the peninsula.
A little later, in the Predynastic Period (4000 BC), turquoise began to be extracted by miners who came from the Nile Valley. Six mines were established on the peninsula. Two of them are particularly important to historians: Sarabit al-Khadim and Wadi Maghareh. They are considered to be among the oldest turquoise mines in the world. During the reign of Pharaoh Senusret I of the Twelfth Dynasty (who ruled Egypt between 1947 and 1911 BC), a temple dedicated to Hathor—the goddess of heaven and love, protector of the desert and mining—was erected in their vicinity. Miners made offerings to her before they set out for work, and the building was successively decorated and expanded. Over time, the temple at Sarabit al-Khadim became one of the key sanctuaries in Egypt, as well as the largest and most important site of the Sinai Peninsula. It was there, in the early twentieth century, that a British archaeological mission led by Hilda Petrie and her husband, William Flinders Petrie, discovered dozens of inscriptions written in Proto-Sinaitic script, the oldest known form of the alphabet. According to the archeologists, they were made by the miners themselves, who used characters drawn from hieroglyphs. However, scientists only managed to decipher one word: mʿhbʿlt, meaning ‘Lady.’ It designated the Turquoise Lady, the goddess Hathor.
In ancient Egypt, small items such as amulets, beads and jewelry inlays were made from turquoise. Light blue turquoise, red carnelian (or jasper) and dark blue lapis lazuli constituted one of the most popular color patterns in the country on the Nile. The combination was very popular during the Middle Kingdom period. A magnificent example of this type of inlaid jewelry is the pectoral cross and necklace of Princess Sithathoriunet, found in the El-Lahun pyramid complex and made ca. 1887–1813 BC. It is considered a masterpiece, one of the highest-quality ornaments ever discovered in the tombs of ancient Egypt.
Turquoise, often associated with the culture of the land of the pharaohs, was in fact a luxury raw material there. Jewels decorated with this stone usually belonged to people of royal power or high social standing. Almost all turquoise found in the tombs of ancient Egypt came from the previously mentioned mines on the Sinai Peninsula. Nevertheless, there are a few notable exceptions, all of which were produced in the first millennium BC. They are believed to have come from the ancient Central Asian kingdom of Khwarazm, which supplied turquoise to another empire that was fond of this semi-precious stone: Persia.
The Ring of Glory
Among the numerous gemstones that were highly valued in ancient Iranian courts and temples, turquoise stones held a unique position since they were used in almost every significant work of architecture and art. Their value surpassed gold and they were an important part of royal deposits. The abundance of turquoise-decorated jewelry, dating back to the Median and Achaemenid dynasties, proves the stone was extremely important.
In a twelfth-century book entitled Jauharname Nezami, written by the jeweler Mohammed bin Abul-Barakat Jauhari Nishapuri, turquoise was said to be mined since ancient times in four different regions: the previously mentioned Khwarazm, as well as Khorasan, Transoxania, and Turkestan. Jewelers who traded in turquoise stones were able to identify their origin, as the stones differed in quality and color. Persian turquoise, the ones extracted in Khorasan, were considered the most beautiful. It is worth mentioning that to this day, among jewelers and gem dealers, the name “Persian turquoise” is often used to describe the specimens of highest quality, regardless of their origin.
The most valuable turquoise was mined near the Persian city of Nishapur. The local mines are among the oldest in the world; they may be even older than the Egyptian ones. Although sources give different dates for the beginning of extraction, a legend stating that their first owner was Isaac, son of Abraham, suggests that the mining has been carried out in the region for thousands of years. Between 500 and 600 AD Nishapur became a major Iranian center for trading turquoise and other valuable stones, and held a strategically important position along the old Silk Road which connected Anatolia and the Mediterranean with China.
Turquoise stones were highly-prized jewels in Persia as well, a luxury beyond the reach of ordinary people and a symbol of prestige and power. They were also associated with supernatural properties: it was believed they provide strength and protect their owners from evil, especially from defeat; the Persian name for turquoise, pērōzah, means ‘victory.’ This is why Persian kings liked to decorate personal items with these stones. A monarch holding turquoise insignia and sitting on a throne with turquoise ornaments embodied powerful, steadfast authority. Moreover, it was believed that drinking wine from turquoise-inlaid cups ensured future war triumphs. Legends spoke of the stone’s special power. According to one of them, none of the soldiers whose corpses covered the battlefields were found to have worn turquoise rings. This was supposed to prove that whoever owned a turquoise was invincible.
Mares Bring Rain
In Persia, the value of turquoise as a magical gem was primarily associated with its color. To fully understand the significance Persians attributed to its blue hue, one must delve into the myths and cosmological concepts of their culture. One such ancient legend is the Hymn to the Lord of Rain and the Dog Star of Sirius, recorded in the Avesta—the holy book of Zoroastrianism, the religion of ancient Iran. It tells the story of the benevolent deity Tishtrya (also known by the name Tir, the personification of Sirius and guardian of water) waging a cyclic battle against Apaosha, the demon of drought.
The myth recounts the story of Tishtrya who travels once a year to the cosmic sea of Vourukaṧa in the form of a beautiful white stallion with golden ears and a golden barding. There he is reunited with the mares that emerge from the foamy depths. Before this can happen, however, he must confront Apaosha, who brings drought and resembles a menacing black horse. After a battle that lasts three days and three nights, Apaosha wins. Upon leaving the battlefield, Tishtrya confesses to the supreme god, Ahura Mazda, that he did not have enough strength to vanquish Apaosha because the people did not make the right offerings and did not worship him properly. In response, Ahura Mazda himself offers a sacrifice to Tishtrya, which allows the deity to gain enough power to win. His triumph thus depends on the worship of his followers in the year preceding the duel. If they do not skimp on prayers and offerings, he will prevail and cover the mares, which will then be lifted by the god of wind, Vayu-Vata, toward the clouds, and there they will give birth to the much-awaited rain.
The fight between Tishtrya and Apaosha is interpreted as a mythical tale about two important events for the Persians. The first is the heliacal rising of Sirius, which occurs in July. The second—the arrival of the hottest and driest season of the year. The heliacal rising occurs when a star or planet, after a period of invisibility, appears above the horizon for the first time, just before dawn. The Persians considered the appearance of the shimmering Sirius to be a sign of Tishtrya’s struggle with Apaosha. Every night the star became more and more visible and its blue light shone brighter, which was believed to herald the fall of Apaosha. Finally, the hot period is followed by the rainy season that revives the land. To this day, the name of the fourth month of the Iranian calendar, Tir, reminds us of Tishtrya’s struggle with the demon of drought. The myth demonstrates the importance of water in desert Iran. Its symbolic representation, the color blue, is the reason why turquoise stones were of such great value to the Persians.
The love of turquoise was adopted by the culture of Islam after the Arabs won over the Sassanids and dominated Iran. The heritage of the ancient Persians was supported by the words of Muhammad, written down in the Hadis. The Prophet supposedly said, “God will not cut off the hand that wears a turquoise ring.” According to Muslim tradition, turquoise was supposed to be a gift from paradise brought to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel. But more important in Arab culture than the stone itself is its color. The Arabs consider the distinctive shade of Persian turquoise to be one of the seven colors of paradise. To them, it symbolizes heaven, faith, and the infinity of the soul.
Pupal Warriors
Apart from the Middle East, Egypt or Central Asia, turquoise deposits may also be found in the Americas. The stone was primarily valued by the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica, an area stretching from central Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama. However, most of the specimens came from today’s southwestern United States, proving that turquoise was an important trade item between these regions.
In the Aztec Nahuatl language, turquoise is called xihuitl. The same word was also used to refer to fire, the solar year, comets, nobility, and grass. The stone was an important symbol in Aztec poetry, ritual, and cosmology. In addition, it was used to decorate jewelry, masks or ceremonial weapons. Today, artefacts embellished with turquoise mosaics are the best-known examples of Mesoamerican arts and crafts. Their creators typically used small tiles made of precious stones and other materials, which they glued onto a wooden base, using a mixture of charcoal and chia or sage seed oil, as well as wood or fossil resins as a binder. Initially, the Mesoamerican people decorated their works with mosaics made of jade, which was the most prized gem in the region at the time. It was only at the end of the Classical period, around 900 AD, that this green stone was almost completely supplanted by its main competitor, turquoise.
The most beautiful examples of turquoise mosaics date from the late Post-classical period (the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries) and were probably made by highly skilled Mixtecan artisans (the Mixtecs are a group of indigenous people from the modern Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla in Mexico). Delightful examples of this type of ornamentation have survived to the present day. They include a magnificent pectoral in the shape of the two-headed snake Xiuhcoatl, made of cedar wood and covered with a mosaic of turquoise, red oyster shells of the Spondylus princeps species, and white pieces of sea-snail shells of the Strombus genus.
For both the Aztecs and the ancient Persians, turquoise was more than just an extravagant ornament. It served an important ceremonial function, became a symbol of nobility and a metaphor for life in the social and religious spheres. The importance of these jewels was starkly illustrated by the Spanish chronicler Bernardin de Sahagún who described the gifts that the emissaries of Emperor Montezuma II gave to Hernán Cortés, believing him to be the incarnation of the god Quetzalcoatl who had arrived in Mexico. In his Florentine Codex, de Sahagún described the following gifts: […].
“First was the array of Quetzalcóatl: a serpent mask made of turquoise mosaic; a quetzal feather head fan; a plaited neck band of precious green stone beads, in the midst of which lay a golden disc; and a shield with bands of gold crossing each other, or with bands of gold crossing other bands of sea shells, with spread quetzal feathers about the lower edge and with a quetzal feather flag; and a mirror upon the small of the back, with quetzal feathers, and this mirror for the small of the back was like a turquoise shield, of turquoise mosaic-encrusted with turquoise, glued with turquoise; and green stone neck bands, on which were golden shells; and then the turquoise spear thrower, which had on it only turquoise with a sort of serpent’s head; it had the head of a serpent; and obsidian sandals.”
Turquoise was referred to as a “heavenly stone,” but at the same time it remained closely associated with fire and the sun (which was made, the Aztecs believed, of turquoise). For this reason, the Aztec god of fire was named Xiuhtecuhtli, or Turquoise Lord, and his spiritual form was the turquoise fire serpent, Xiuhcoatl. It is likely that the diadem of the Aztec kings, called xiuhuitzolli—“pointed turquoise thing”—symbolized the creature’s tail. Interestingly, Aztec beliefs linked the Xiuhcoatl not only to fire, but also to meteorites. They believed that once the cosmic rocks hit the ground, they transformed into immaterial worms and caterpillars, which were the pupal souls of warriors.
The Jewel’s Promise
At first glance the associations made between the blue stone and fire may seem puzzling, but they are quite easy to explain. The color of turquoise is the color of the heart of the flame. Fire, in turn, was a sign of renewal and fertility for the Aztecs; the New Fire ceremony marked the beginning of the Aztec calendar cycle, which was fifty-two years long. Thus, although the symbolism of turquoise in Mesoamerica and Persia differs greatly, it does have a common feature—that of a hidden meaning, similar for both cultures. Furthermore, if we consider that the Egyptian Turquoise Lady, the goddess Hathor, looks after the souls of the dead and gives birth to the Sun god Ra every day at dawn, we may conclude that the beautiful, joyful color of turquoise promises the exact same thing always and everywhere: new life.
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