Alabaster

Alabaster head, III-I century B.C., Louvre Museum.

The alabaster, a word that comes from the Latin alabastrum, is a variety of calcium sulphate, aljez or gypsum stone (hydrated calcium sulphate) that is It is in a compact form, contrary to selenite, which is a fibrous variety. Its name comes from the ancient Greek αλάβαστρος ("alabastros"), which designated a vessel without handles, since alabaster was used to make perfume vessels without handles.

Alabaster, like aljez, or gypsum stone, is scratched with a fingernail (Mohs hardness 1.5 to 2). Its crystalline system is monoclinic. This variety of fine-grained algez is extracted from Spanish, English or Tuscany quarries. Alabaster is used as a decorative stone. Its softness allows it to be carved with very elaborate shapes. Soluble in water, cannot be used outdoors.

Calcite

Alabaster sculpture.

Calcite is the "alabaster of the ancients" or "alabaster of the Bible" or also "alabaster of the East", since the first known objects in alabaster come from the Near East. Highly sought after for the elaboration of small perfume or ointment vessels, called alabaster, possible origin of the word "alabaster".

A sarcophagus carved from a single block of calcite is in the collection of the Sloane Museum in London. It was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817, in the tomb of pharaoh Seti I, not far from Thebes, and purchased by Sir John Sloane after having unsuccessfully proposed it to the British Museum. The stone was mined near Thebes, in the city renamed Psinaula or Alabastron by the Greeks.

Alabaster was used to make Egyptian canopic jars and other types of sacred or funerary vessels such as those found by Howard Carter in the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.

In pre-Hispanic America, the Mayans and Aztecs made alabaster objects.

Other uses

One of the main characteristics that make alabaster prized is the fact that it is translucent. The churches in the Ebro Valley, in Spain, had sheets of alabaster instead of glass. The relative softness of this material allows it to be carved even with a fingernail. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is an example of modern construction in which alabaster is used in its windows. A special cooling device prevents the panels from becoming opaque under the effect of heat.

Tulips and ceiling lamps are also manufactured in the field of lighting, which are part of the so-called bronze "spiders".

Illustration from Lucubratiunculae II of Alabastris..., published in Acta eruditorum, 1733

Extraction of alabaster

A large part of the world's extraction of alabaster is carried out in Aragón (Spain), in the Historical Lower Aragón and Ribera Baja del Ebro (Teruel and Zaragoza), in towns such as Gelsa, Quinto, Fuentes de Ebro, Azaila, La Puebla of Híjar and Albalate del Arzobispo. The exploitation is done through quarries. Being a highly soluble mineral in water, the relief erodes easily. Apart from elaborate pieces, it is exported in large quantities in raw blocks to make false jade, highly appreciated in Asia and the Arab world, through a procedure that hardens it and dyes it in different colors.

Formation of alabaster

The stages of the alabaster training cycle.