Collection: LAPIS LAZULI

Lapis lazuli or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone, which is prized since for its intense colour.

As early as the 7th millennium BCE, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i-Sang mines, in Shoetugai, and in other mines in Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan.

Lapis Lazuli was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BCE).

Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BCE, have been found at Bhirrana, which is the oldest site of Indus Valley Civilisation. Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation. 

By the end of the Middle Ages, Lapis Lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. Ultramarine was used by some of  the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures in their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary.

Ultramarine has also been found in dental tartar of medieval Nuns and Scribes.