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Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone

Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BOOK IV
69
obsidianus since Pliny writes as follows concerning glass. Obsidianus is classified as a glass because of a similarity to a stone found at Obsidius, Ethiopia, which is very black and sometimes transparent. It has a dense appearance and reflects a dark shadowy image like a mirror. They make many gems from it and the statue of Saint Augustus was cut from the massive dense material as well as the four elephants in the temple of Concordia which was consecrated by a miracle. Tiberius Caesar, when placed over Egypt, sent back an obsidian statue of Menelaus that came into his possession, to the priests of Heliopolis. This shows the ancient origin of the material that is now falsified with glass. Xenocrates writes that lapis obsidianus occurs in India; Samnium, Italy; and near the ocean in Spain. Pliny, when writing about this mineral, says that it comes from India.7
I shall mention the places where this bituminous earth occurs. It is mined in that part of Britain or Albion which we call Scotland because of the Scotch Germans who emigrated there. It is found most abundantly about twenty miles from Edinburgh on the Deisert heath at a place they call Carbon. Some of this material burns as I have described elsewhere. Solinus writes that jet is also found in Britain. The hard variety that the Romans called lapis obsidianus is mined in northern Spain. Even today they still make statues from this material and many of these have been brought to us from Galicia by travellers. It is mined at Sion, France and in Lower Germany, especially near Leodiensis. The hard material from the latter locality is used to make the best beads with which we cal­culate prices. It is found in Lower Germany at Aquisgranus and in Greater Germany in many places, especially in Saxony at the town which is named Oberbach because of the white poplars, about twenty miles north of Μ under. It is found in Misena in a mountain famous for its coal, two and one-half miles from Zuicca. There the miners worked the earth to a depth of six feet and then having enlarged the diggings they dis­covered a vein of soft coal almost eighteen feet thick when completely exposed. Below this was a very dense rock and below the rock a second vein of coal so hard they have given it the name "pitch" which it resembles in color and luster.8 Below this vein bituminous cadmia was found and be­low that aluminous pyrite, pure copper and coal. There are burning mountains in certain localities and the coal that feeds the fire is changed into a black powder when earth falls into the fire and extinguishes it. Such a place is found along the distant Black river that flows through the solitudes of Africa where jagged, burnt-out rocks jut from the river. Pliny writes that Suetonium Paulinum was his authority for the above statement. This same genus of bituminous earth is found five miles from Dresden, Misena, on the road to Freiberg. It also occurs at three places
7 These descriptions refer to the volcanic glass called obsidian and not to a bi­tuminous material or jet.
8 This probably refers to anthracite coal.
Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone
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