Jewelry is made of things from the earth–like metals and minerals. Or it’s made of animals from the sea–like pearls and coral. But meteorite is one material used in jewelry that doesn’t come from the earth or the sea. Meteorite is extraterrestrial material, recovered after it hits Earth. It’s used a lot in men’s wedding bands, and its use is starting to seep into women’s pendants and bracelets.
Lashbrook’s Meteorite Men’s Wedding Band
What is meteorite made of? Well, it depends on which type you’re thinking about. The three types are stony, iron, and stony-iron. Only 5% of meteorites are classified as iron, but they are the ones that are used for jewelry. These meteorites are primarily iron but contain trace elements like nickel, cobalt and gold. The metal shows a distinctive crystalline pattern when cut, polished, and acid etched. The pattern is the result of slow-cooling iron and nickel crystals.
One manufacturer of men’s wedding bands, Lashbrook, uses material from the Gibeon meteorite. The Gibeon material is found near the town of Gibeon in Namibia. Turns out that all meteorites are named for their location. It’s believed the tons of material that showered Gibeon 30,000 years ago is about 4 billion years old.
Suppose you want a piece of outer space in your ring. After all, how cool is that? But you should know a few things first. Iron meteorites are magnetic so, if your job is working with magnets, you may want to reconsider. If you have a nickel allergy, you shouldn’t wear meteorite. Gibeon material is about 9% nickel. And, even if none of the above holds true for you, you will want to treat your ring with care. It’s important to never wear it in a pool or hot tub. Because iron can rust, keep the ring dry as much as possible. If you do notice rust, rid the meteorite of any moisture by soaking it in 90% rubbing alcohol and then air drying it. You can clean it gently with a soft toothbrush, and then apply a small amount of gun metal oil, wiping away any excess. Finally, the etch pattern that makes meteorite so distinctive can wear down and become fainter over time. It is possible to re-etch the pattern, however.
A raw piece of Seymchan Meteorite
One thing that surprised me was how many meteorites exist on Earth. Over 40,000 have been found and cataloged. Small pieces of meteorite fall to Earth everyday, but most of them are small and impossible to find because they fall into an ocean! If you want to look for iron meteorite, here are a few tips. Look in regions that are dry and have a barren expanse, like the Mohave Desert or the Great Plains. The black to dark brown color of a meteorite’s exterior, due to the fact that it’s on fire when it enters our atmosphere, is easier to see when the land is tan-colored and without vegetation. Also, the dryness of desert areas helps keep the meteorite from rusting. Use a metal detector to find iron meteorites. And check with the land owner before beginning your search. It’s usually okay to search on public land, but you can’t take any specimens from a National Park.
I have only one tip if you want a meteorite ring. Come to Dearborn Jewelers!!
Egyptian Faience Necklace at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, drawn by Ellyn Marmaduke
After last week’s group tour to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, I had to decide which artifacts to focus on. One of the first display cases we stopped at had this beautiful faience necklace worn in Egypt between 1991-656BC. How many of you know about FAIENCE? The word sounded vaguely familiar but was totally out of context. Still, I was drawn to the beautiful blue color and vowed to learn more. Turns out that Egyptian faience is very different from French faience, which is that pottery with the detailed painted decoration on it. Egyptian faience could better be described as a combination of clay and glass. It’s the oldest known type of glazed ceramic. They can track its existence back to 4000BC. It molds like clay, but its chemical make-up is powdered quartz. Since quartz is basically silica(silicon dioxide), the same main elements as in glass, a better phrase for Egyptian faience would be glassy paste or sintered quartz. The “faience” was glazed with a blue or green vitreous coating, perhaps to resemble turquoise, which was highly prized at that time.
The other jewelry pieces I wanted to learn more about were Roman rather than Egyptian. They were described as LUNATE and BULLAE. Again, I felt totally confused by the words. Our guide told us that young girls wore the lunate pendant, the one that’s shaped like the crescent moon. Young men wore bullae pendants, the hollow, pillow-like pieces in the upper right of the drawing.
Roman Lunate and Bullae Jewelry displayed at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, drawn by Ellyn Marmaduke
Jewelry has often been used to silently tell the wearer’s status. Females wearing a crescent moon were known to be unmarried virgins. The young moon meant a fresh start, with hopes and wishes for a bright future of matrimony. For thousands of years the moon has been a feminine symbol–the waxing (crescent) moon, the full moon, and the waning moon were associated with a young maiden, a matron, and the elderly woman. Since maidens in that time period married between the ages of 12 and 17, this was not a necklace they wore for very long. Young males were given a bulla to wear soon after birth. It had two purposes. It was believed to protect them from evil spirits. In the Roman culture, children were seen as being very vulnerable and needing protection. It also let others know that the child was freeborn rather than a slave. Wealthy boys had bullae of gold while poorer boys had ones made of leather, but anyone with a bulla was free. These pendants were worn until manhood, at age 16.
These were just a few artifacts found at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Each one tells a wonderful story if you have the time and inclination to do some digging. It was fun finding out more about these pieces of jewelry. And I always love learning the meanings of words! I hope you can go to the museum and find your own fascinating stories.
Want to spend a couple of hours lost in the ancient worlds of the Romans and Greeks? Take a pleasant drive to Ann Arbor and visit the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. As an alumnus of the Gemological Institute of America (G.I.A.), I was recently invited to attend the Michigan chapter’s tour of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. What a fun and educational experience!
Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
Tied to the University of Michigan, the museum is situated on South State Street in Ann Arbor. It’s not a large place, but it’s packed with delightful artifacts from ancient cultures. The focus is on classical Greek, Egyptian, and Near Eastern archaeology. Over 100,000 artifacts are housed there, with about 1500 on permanent display. On our tour we saw Greek and Roman coins, Egyptian jewelry, and Etruscan pottery. We also toured their special exhibit called “Less Than Perfect,” celebrating the lessons learned from failure. It showcases art that went deliberately awry.
The museum is named after a professor at U of M back in the early 1900s. Born in 1858, Francis Kelsey grew up in New York, went to school in Chicago, and was hired as a Latin professor in 1889. During his 38 years in Ann Arbor, he led two archaeological expeditions to Egypt, the near East, and Asia Minor. Many of the artifacts in the museum were unearthed during these expeditions. Kelsey lived during a time when there was huge fascination for all things ancient. Discoveries like Pompeii and King Tut’s tomb contributed to this fascination. He was able to gain funding for his expeditions and his collection by seeking help from financiers like J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. Kelsey worked tirelessly to create a collection that would help educate archaeology students, right up until his death in 1927.
I hope you can go to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. For me, it was just the right size museum. It’s open year-round and every day of the week except Mondays. And it’s always free, although donations are appreciated. For more information, the website is https://lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/
I never realized there were so many good luck charms until I started working at a jewelry store. Sure, I knew of the 4-leaf clover and the rabbit’s foot, but I’d never heard of the “ankh” and the “cornicello.” One of my more embarrassing moments came recently when a woman came in with her husband’s necklace. It needed repair so I wrote up a repair slip, describing the piece as a “hot pepper pendant on a gold chain.” Everyone laughed at me when I took it back to the shop. “That’s not a hot pepper,” chuckled the bench jeweler. “That’s a gorno.”
The “corno” pendant
“Huh? What’s a gorno?” Well, truth is, he wasn’t completely sure. And the fact is, it’s not a gorno. It’s a corno or a cornicello. Turns out this is the Italian word for “horn” or “little horn.” It apparently protects the wearer from the evil eye. The evil eye is a look, given to inflict harm or bad luck. There is widespread belief in the power of the evil eye, but, supposedly, it started in ancient Greece.
Now, the “evil eye” I’d seen before, a few months back when working with a different customer. It’s kind of confusing, because some people wear an amulet of an eye, as protection from evil. They call the amulet the evil eye. So I guess an “evil eye” can be either bad luck OR good luck.
I think every culture has their own version of a good luck charm. The “ankh”(pronounced awnk) is actually the Egyptian symbol for life. As the key of life, it represents zest and energy, and some people wear it as a protection from demons. It resembles a Christian cross, but has a loop at the top.
The “ankh” pendant
I guess we all can use a little good luck from time to time. Can it hurt to wear a good luck charm? It’s just nice to know there are so many options.