Where Does Turquoise Come From?
Turquoise forms in arid regions, where rainwater filters through copper-rich soils and leaves deposits of hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminum in apertures in parent rock. As a result, major turquoise deposits generally occur in association with large copper deposits, and copper mining and turquoise harvesting often work hand-in-hand. Turquoise-producing regions have historically included northern Africa (Egypt and Iran), southern Asia (China), North America (U.S. and Mexico), and even South America (Chile).
Archeologists have found turquoise jewelry in Egyptian burial sites dates as far back as 6,000 B.C., and, by the time of the First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt (3000 B.C.), the mineral played an important role in the pharaoh culture. Egyptians extracted from the oldest-known mines, Sarabit el-Khadim and Wadi Maghareh, in the Sinai Peninsula, for thousands of years, but today, the Bedouin people only sporadically harvest turquoise there.
The Persians, of present-day Iran, called turquoise, “pirouzeh” (victory) and, later, “firouzeh.” The Nishapur mining region produced turquoise during 2,000 years, and Persia’s pure, “robin’s egg blue” color, at one time, earned the highest prices on the world market. Early Persians adorned the domes of their sacred edifications with turquoise, which, with its beautiful blue color, represented the heavens. Although Iran produces very little Persian Turquoise now, it still demands attention from global jewelry buyers. The western name for turquoise comes from the country, Turkey, which traded Iranian firouzeh with Europe.
Chinese artisans fabricated figures from soft turquoise more than 3,000 years ago. The Chinese appreciated turquoise so much that the republic only allowed the mining of choice stones by order of the emperor himself.
Today most turquoise on the market originates from the Southwestern United States, with the Sleeping Beauty Mine, of Arizona, possibly producing more material than any other mine in the world. The American culture, much newer than that of Eurasia and North Africa, found turquoise by 1,000 A.D., and archaeologists associate it with the Anasazi culture, consisting of a group that inhabited the present-day Four Corners area where the Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet. More on Turquoise Mines.
Early Native Americans revered turquoise, and early jewelry from this region consisted of simple, crude designs. Native American groups from both the modern-day U.S. and Mexico regions harvested, worked, and traded turquoise and turquoise products. Some of these materials travelled widely in the Americas. For example, Archeologists, Garman Harbottle and Edward Sayre, looked at turquoise mosaics from the ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá in the Yucatan, of southern Mexico. They found Cerrillos mine turquoise fragments, from New Mexico, dating back to 900 AD, some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to the northwest. Likewise, explorers have found turquoise artifacts throughout much of the southwest, into Mexico, and even into South America. Mayans, of Mesoamerica, reportedly valued turquoise more than gold!
References
Anonymous. 2015. History of Turquoise. [Online] Unknown, 2015. [Cited: January 11, 2015.] www.historyofturquoise.com/.
Danchevskaya, O. Y. 2009. Turquoise in the Life of American Indians. Proceedings of the Eighth Native Native American Symposium. [Online] Southeastern Oklahoma State University, 2009. [Cited: January 11, 2015.] http://www.se.edu/nas/files/2013/03/NAS-2009-Proceedings-Danchevskaya.pdf.
2005-2015. Turquoise: Properties of a gemstone mineral that has been held in high regard for thousands of years. Geology.com. [Online] 2005-2015. [Cited: January 11, 2015.] http://geology.com/minerals/turquoise.shtml.
From the T.Skies gallery: browse our turquoise jewelry collection.
From the Library: Pogue, The Turquois (1915)
1915 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1915, not today.
According to Pogue (1915, p. 13), the earliest Arabic author to mention Persian turquoise was Ibn Haukal in 978 A.D., who, following Istakhri (951), listed turquoise among the mines in the mountains of Nishapur and Tus.
Of the Nishapur mines in the seventeenth century, Pogue (1915) summarized the traveling jeweler Jean Baptiste Tavernier, who
“gives a brief description of the Nishapur mines, noting as did his predecessors that the best stones (of the old rock) were guarded for the sole use of the King, whereas all the world was permitted to buy the product of the new rock, which was of inferior and less permanent color.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 19
On the eastern trade, Pogue (1915) noted that Marco Polo,
“in his remarkable journey across Asia in the latter half of the thirteenth century noted the production of turquoises in the Province of Kerman in Persia and Caindu (present Sze-ch'uan) in China.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 14
Pogue (1915) cites the Chinese work 'Cho keng lu,' first published in 1366, on the precious stones traded into China:
“These include three kinds of tien-tse, obtained respectively from Nishapur, Kerman, and Siang-yang (a city and prefecture of Hu-pei Province, China).”
— Pogue (1915), p. 15
Pogue (1915) sorted the world's deposits into three types. Of the first and most important, he wrote:
“The turquois occurs in acid igneous rocks rich in alkalic feldspars and considerably altered by weathering or deep-seated alteration, or both. The majority of commercially important deposits come under this head; as, for example, the Nishapur deposits and the principal deposits of the West, particularly those of the Burro Mountains and the Cerrillos Hills.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 63
His third type, as Pogue described it in 1915, covers the oldest mines:
“The turquois is present in a non-igneous matrix (usually sandstone or shale) and has no apparent genetic connection with any igneous body. The Sinai and Australian occurrences are the principal representatives of this type.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 63
On depth, Pogue (1915) reported:
“The turquois deposits are invariably near the surface. The mineral does not extend to depth (is seldom below 100 feet).”
— Pogue (1915), p. 64
On the copper, Pogue (1915) wrote:
“Disseminated copper ores are the source of the copper combined in the turquois. Copper stains are always, and copper deposits frequently, recognized at turquois localities.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 66
And on the phosphorus, Pogue (1915) concluded:
“Apatite disseminated in the country rock is the most probable source of the phosphoric acid.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 64
On the name, Pogue wrote in 1915:
“The turquois or turquoise, from the French, meaning Turkish stone, is generally supposed to have been so designated because the mineral was introduced into Europe by way of Turkey. It is more probable, however, that the important locality near Nishapur in Persia was once regarded as within the limits of vaguely defined “Turkey” and the term had reference to this source of supply.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 129
Pogue (1915) named four regions as the world's historic sources:
“It will be necessary to consider but four regions which have furnished practically the world’s supply of this mineral since the beginning of time; namely, the Sinai Peninsula, the deposits near Nishapur in Persia, scarcely known localities in Central Asia (Tibet and China), and the mines within the southwestern portion of the United States.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 134
Of the Nishapur mines, Pogue wrote in 1915:
“It is certain, however, that for the past thousand years they have supplied nearly all the turquois used in Europe and western Asia, and until two decades ago, the American trade also.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 134
As of 1915, Pogue listed the producing states:
“The productive deposits of turquois in North America are confined to five States: New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and California; and practically every locality that has moderately yielded this precious stone was exploited of old by the Indians.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 134
Writing in 1915, Pogue summed up the world's sources:
“Important productive deposits of turquois are found only in Persia, central Asia (Tibet and China), and the southwestern portion of the United States.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 28
For North America, Pogue (1915) wrote:
“Turquois deposits of commercial importance occur in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. The last mentioned is the oldest and largest producer; the others have more recently come into prominence.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 44
Read more: The Written History of Turquoise · Turquoise in Tibet, Mongolia and China
From the Library: Ryan & Chambless, Turquoise in America Part Two: 1910–1990 (2020)
2020 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2020, not today.
Richard M. Shull, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 337), explained that turquoise forms from the weathering of surrounding rock, through precipitation or circulating groundwater. The host rock, whether igneous such as granite or sedimentary such as old sea floor, has to be just acidic enough to release the needed elements, and it needs open space (fissures, faults, cavities) for the new mineral to fill. [2]
According to Richard M. Shull, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 337), so-called fossil turquoise formed in cavities left by fossils such as tube-like graptolites and clam-shaped brachiopods and takes their shape. The name refers to that form; the stone is still turquoise. [2]
Shull, in the appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020), on why famous mines run out:
“Turquoise deposits are generally very shallow compared to those of other gemstones. Because of this, even historically rich deposits can become exhausted relatively quickly.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 337 [2]
From the Library: Khazeni, Sky Blue Stone (2014)
2014 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2014, not today.
Khazeni (2014) summarised where turquoise was historically mined:
“Found exclusively in desert environments, its deposits were historically mined in a wide mineral-bearing stratum extending from Egypt through Iran to Tibet, with the most precious stones unearthed from the mines of Nishapur.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 3 [3]
On the name, Khazeni (2014) wrote:
“Becoming associated with the Turks and the trade routes that carried the gem across the Ottoman Empire to Europe, the stone was called pietre turchese in Italian and in French pierre turquoise, or “Turkish stone.””
— Khazeni (2014), p. 3 [3]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 15), the reopening of turquoise sources in the Americas, including the Cerrillos mines of New Mexico, ended the Persian monopoly and changed the patterns of the turquoise trade. [3]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (2002)
2002 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2002, not today.
Lowry (2002) on how turquoise forms:
“Water flowing over exposed rock releases the chemical building blocks of turquoise, which are carried down in solution and ultimately accumulate and crystallize in fractures in the host rock.”
— Lowry (2002), p. 3 [4]
Lowry (2002) passed on a prospector's rule:
“Prospectors and geologists also know that turquoise deposits are found most often on the southern slopes of mountains.”
— Lowry (2002), p. 6 [4]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 6), the same runoff that forms turquoise carries loose bits called "float" into the washes below, and a rock hunter who follows float up the hillside may find the deposit it came from. [4]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 6), most deposits lie no deeper than one hundred feet, and the denser, higher-grade turquoise tends to form deeper, in harder host rock (mainly granite) that takes modern mining methods to reach. [4]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 10), significant deposits in Peru, Chile and the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Sonora were known to the ancients, but most of their turquoise is soft and has to be treated before it can be used in jewelry. [4]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Our article says the name comes from Turkey, which traded Persian stones into Europe, and Schiffer gives the same trade-route explanation. Writing in 1915, Pogue called that the usual explanation, but he thought it more probable that the Nishapur mines were once counted as part of a loosely defined 'Turkey.' I'm leaving both explanations here.
I notice Pogue (1915) thought the name “Turkish stone” more probably came from Nishapur once being counted inside a vaguely defined “Turkey,” while Khazeni (2014) ties it to the Turks and the trade routes that carried the stone across the Ottoman Empire to Europe. I have left both explanations on the page.
Sources
- Pogue, Joseph E. The Turquois: A Study of Its History, Mineralogy, Geology, Ethnology, Archaeology, Mythology, Folklore, and Technology. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XII, Part II, Third Memoir. Washington, 1915. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1915.
- Ryan, Mike, II, and Philip Chambless. Turquoise in America, Part Two: 1910–1990. Callais Press, 2020. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2020.
- Khazeni, Arash. Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History. The California World History Library 20. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2014.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2002.
