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Jet
Mineral
deposits available in Georgia: Mt. Shoda, Kazbegi region, Upper
Svaneti. Jet is organic precious stone. It is a kind of
intensive black lustrous fossil coal. In Georgian it is called
gisheri, a more common name in other languages is
gagate. According to Pliny the Elder the name gagate
comes from a river in Lycia, Asia Minor. Another Georgian name
for this stone is sati.
Chemical composition: sometimes it may contain impurities,
hardness 2.5-4, specific gravity 1300-1400 kg/m. It has
velvet waxy gloss. Its color is opaque black. It is found in
sedimentary rocks (marl sandstone clay sediments) in the form of
pockets of mineral clusters. The original material is focilissed
wood from Araucaria family.
Jet is a beautiful stone used in jewellery. It is used for
making beads, decorating rings and necklaces. There are jet
deposits in England, Spain, France, USA, Russia, and Siberia.
In Georgia jet has been mined and manufactured from prehistoric
times. These rich evidence to this discovered by archeologists
G. Nioradze and B. Kuftin.
In one of the ancient tombs excavated in Mtskheta there has been
found a bead with a schematic image of a horse. This is
indicative of a high level of the art of that period. Finely cut
jet beads belonging to II century A.D. have been found in
Kldeeti, Zestafoni region. An archeologist G. Lomtatidze has
been writing: - We can absolutely suggest that they should
have been made of the local material and cut by the local
(meaning old Okriba or Argveti) masters.
Z. Chichinadze wrote: - the handicraft and development of the
jet art originated in Imereti . Jet miners and artisans in
Okriba created a number of technical terms related to the
processing, cleaning, polishing, treating of the mineral.
For centuries the Okribian artisans made jet beads, decorations, rosaries and crosses.
Sergi Meskhi wrote about the jet production in
Kutaisi in Droeba newspaper: - the jet production started to
spread from the begining of this century (1814); however they
did not know how to polish jet things before 1839 and could not
sell them for that reason. In 1839 Mr. Iv. Nikoladze found a
method of jet polishing and after this jet became more valued
and jewellery made of it became more popular among the people.
Elise Reclus was mentioning jet ware of Kutaisi. M. Piliaev
wrote that jet was mined near Kutaisi.
There are 23 prospective jet deposits registered in Georgia.
They fall under three age groups: Jurassic, Oligocene and Upper
Sarmat.
The major deposits of jet are in Tkibuli, Gelati region,
Dzirovani, Tsutskhvati, Orpiri. There is a place name
Sagishre. Jet is also found in Abkhazia (Azanta, Leji,
Eshera). In east Georgia (Metekhi) jet deposits have been
studied by N. Khidasheli and T. Mgeliashvili.
Jet has always been popular with Georgians. Georgian poets
compared it to everything good and exquisite. It's the most
favorite stone for Rustaveli. In his Knight in Panther's Skin
jet is mentioned 21 times. Jet is believed to protect from evil
eye. People think that it gets bad energy from the bearer and
bursts. |
