Gems of Georgia – unearthing the country’s untouched treasures
Georgia’s local gemstones are far easier to find these days in the country’s museums and ethnographic centers than in its shops. Pride of place in the state museum’s displays are the splendid drinking vessels and jewelry made by masters from the 3rd millennium BC onwards in gold and silver with splendid semi-precious stone incrustations.
Archeologists say the turquoise, carnelian, agate, crystal, jet, garnets, sardonyx, lapis lazuli, and jasper used by the artisans in those times, evidenced by the finds in the ancient graves of the nobility right across Georgia, are all local and can still be found. However, the limelight for Georgia’s precious minerals story is occupied completely by gold, thanks to Jason and the Golden Fleece.
The traditional classification of gems, which goes back to ancient times, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious, according to the gemstone encyclopedia Gemopedia. In modern use, precious stones are emerald, ruby, sapphire, and diamonds, with all other gemstones being deemed semi-precious.
As illustrated by a necklace from the 18th-17th century BCE found in one of the Trialeti Kurgans at Tsalka burial grounds in Kvemo Kartli, featuring beads decorated with a very delicate technique, the jewelers’ art reached high levels. A state museum catalog dates this necklace from a period “marked by the heavy use of semi-precious stones that was common for all the surrounding world.” But, it adds: “Georgian artisans kept their cultural traditions and were quite moderate in their usage of colors in semiprecious incrustation.” For example, the selection of colors in golden jewelry was restricted to blue (turquoise), red (garnet), or sardonyx (red and white).”
Georgian gemstones
Deposits of semi-precious minerals or gemstones are quite widespread in Georgia, according to a paper from the Georgian Technical University. “Among them, minerals of the agate-chalcedony group (chalcedony quartz gemstones include agate, aventurine, bloodstone, carnelian, chrysoprase, jasper, and onyx) are of particular importance and have been mined and used for jewelry purposes since ancient times; the discovery in burial grounds of numerous pieces of jewelry made of them and decorated with them are evidence of it.” It adds: “These minerals are distinguished by a highly decorative appearance, great density, resistance to environmental conditions, and, most importantly, attractive color.”
Rare, however, these days, are artists who incorporate such stones or even precious metals from local mines and mineral deposits into their work. Given migration from the regions – such as Racha, Samtskhe Javakheti, or around Kaspi – where the gemstones can be found, the scale of production is tiny. So, too, these days, is the number of jewelry masters who might buy them. Local stones are crowded out of the market by the all-too abundant flood of easily obtainable large imported stones from Asia, which also undercut local production on price.
An exception to this neglect is jet stone (gisheri in Georgian), derived from lignite, a brown-black coal formed from wood buried underground that has petrified under pressure over millions of years. This is listed among the country’s gemstones in the study Mineral Composition of Archeological Finds Of Georgia and in the Geoarchaeology of Georgia. A lustrous gemstone, it is often referred to as black amber, but is much less to be seen today than in history as black jewelry has declined in popularity.
Unlike most gems, jet is not a mineral or crystal, but a mineraloid and it can be faceted and carved into beautiful shapes, although high-quality jet gemstones are rare. The stone is found all over the world, and in Georgia, unsurprisingly, a major source is the region around the Tkibuli coal mines where it is still mined, albeit in a small way. A charming video on the Tkibuli website shows the mine-to-jeweler’s bench journey of a jet-stone bead.
Jet stone beads are sold in shops and at curbside stalls in Georgia and are often made into rosaries or prayer beads. There is a small retail outlet for the raw stone near the Gold Market at the Tbilisi mainline railway station that is the source of the stone for many local artisans who use it. Even 15 years ago, other gemstones could be bought at street stalls, but no longer.
Georgian jewelers
Local jewelry masters who work with Georgian stones include Khatuna Bezhuashvili with her range of Beju jewelry that can be found in the Chardin Gallery at the Tbilisi Marriott. Cameo artist Besarion Darjania works sometimes with local stones at his Tbilisi studio at Cameo Gallery in St. Petersburg Street near Marjanishvili. Several examples of the use of local stone combined with the favorite Georgia art of cloisonné enameling, crafted by Elisabed Grdzelishvili, can be found in the Ornament Gallery in Tbilisi’s Irakli II Street.
Cameos, which feature a relief carving of a person, animal, or scene, were present in much of the world’s history. Their original purpose was utilitarian: they were mostly used as seals but sometimes as ornamental additions to the ceremonial robes of Roman emperors. Early cameos were mainly carved in different types of Mediterranean stone with cornelian, jasper, chalcedony, and a wide variety of colored agates being common choices.
There has been for millennia, more to gemstones than their just ornamental appeal or value, as Elisabed Grdzelishvili tells. She likes combining stone and enamel in her work, particularly jet. “When I was a child, my grandmother told me that gisheri [jet] brings happiness and joy and protection from the evil eye,” she says.
Worldwide there are beliefs like this, that gemstones can have healing properties, although there is little medical evidence and many dismiss all but a placebo effect. Yet gemstones are sold for the health and wealth-enhancing they are believed to possess. There are gemstone societies everywhere, and a mass of websites for followers, detailing the properties of any kind of stone. Rock crystal is a prime choice of collectors who buy huge chunks for display, believing that it harmonizes energies that are nearby, including increasing the powers of other crystals and minerals.
Blue lapis lazuli, for example, has been prized throughout history as a stone associated with wisdom, awareness, and good health. The deep red radiance of garnet has been formed into talismans across centuries and different cultures to safeguard travelers along their journeys and again, to light the way to prosperity. And turquoise, with the status of a “protective” stone, has historically been thought to help soothe skin conditions and relieve stress relief.
There is little in Georgia’s written history to record the status, or local myths of the powers, of its gemstones. Most often, as Elisabed Grdzelishvili’s story shows, this features in oral traditions. The attention, publicity, and action in precious minerals is dominated by Georgia’s gold, driven by its production value of tens of millions of dollars. The crystals of gemstones that can still be found on the hillsides of Racha and Svaneti attest to riches that have largely been forgotten.