Lapis lazuli Jewelry

Lapis lazuli mined since the 3rd millennium BC, has been traded and made into jewelry since ancient Mesopotamia by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians. Lapis jewelry has been found in Predynastic Egyptian site of Naqada  (3300-3100 BC). And not only was it used in jewelry during that time but also for eye shadow by Cleopatra. Lapis is mainly composed of lazurite but also has calcite (white), sodalite (blue) and pyrite, or fool’s gold (metallic), minerals in its formation. This beautiful blue mineral has been crushed and used it paints by artists like Johannes Vermeer’s The Girl with a Pearl Earrings painting done it 1665.