Jasper is an opaque rock of virtually any colour stemming from the mineral content of the original sediments or ash. Russian, late 19th century, Kremlin Armoury

Probable provenance: German, early 17th century, Waddesdon Bequest, British Museum Goat-headed basket carved from red jasper. Male torso carved from red jasper, Bronze Age, Harappa, Indus Valley civilisation, Pakistan Types Jewel-set vase carved from red-and-yellow jasper. Flinders Petrie suggested that the odem, the first stone on the High Priest's breastplate, was a red jasper, whilst tarshish, the tenth stone, may have been a yellow jasper. The Hebrew word may have designated a green jasper. The jasper of the ancients probably included stones which would now be classed as chalcedony, and the emerald-like jasper may have been akin to the modern chrysoprase. Jasper is referred to in the Nibelungenlied as being clear and green. The jasper of antiquity was in many cases distinctly green, for it is often compared to emerald and other green objects. Īlthough the term jasper is now restricted to opaque quartz, the ancient iaspis was a stone of considerable translucency including nephrite. On Minoan Crete, jasper was carved to produce seals circa 1800 BC, as evidenced by archaeological recoveries at the palace of Knossos. Jasper is known to have been a favorite gem in the ancient world its name can be traced back in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Assyrian, Greek and Latin. Green jasper was used to make bow drills in Mehrgarh between 4th and 5th millennium BC. This Semitic etymology is believed to be unrelated to that of the English given name Jasper, which is of Persian origin, though the Persian word for the mineral jasper is also yashp ( یَشم). iaspis) from Greek ἴασπις iaspis (feminine noun), from an Afroasiatic language (cf. The name means 'spotted or speckled stone,' and is derived via Old French jaspre (variant of Anglo-Norman jaspe) and Latin iaspidem (nom. Jaspillite is a banded-iron-formation rock that often has distinctive bands of jasper.Įtymology and history Movable Egyptian ring in green jasper and gold, from 664 to 322 BC or later (Late Period), the Walters Art Museum Amulet of scarlet jasper, provenance unknown, Royal Pump Room, Harrogate Low-relief sphinx pendant, red jasper, pearl and enamel, French, circa 1870 The specific gravity of jasper is typically 2.5 to 2.9. It can be highly polished and is used for items such as vases, seals, and snuff boxes. Jasper breaks with a smooth surface and is used for ornamentation or as a gemstone. The common red color is due to iron(III) inclusions. Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color and rarely blue. Most commonly red, but may be yellow, brown, green or (rarely) blue Jasper outcrop, Bucegi Mountains, Romania

Dalmatian jasper rock