Diamond April’s Birthstone

 

Diamond  DIAMOND             Diamond

April Birthstone

 Ancient Artifacts & Treasures, Inc.

The origin of birthstones is believed to date back to the breastplate of Aaron that contained twelve gemstones representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Later on these were assigned to the twelve months. According to legends, wearing the birthstone during its month improved its healing powers. If an individual owned all twelve birthstones and alternated them monthly, it also improved the healing powers.

Our current list of gemstones dates back to 1912 with only one addition since then, the tanzanite was added to December. Some new lists, however, do contain several birthstones for each month.

The April birthstone, diamond, in addition to being a symbol of everlasting love, was once thought to bring courage. In Sanskrit, the diamond is called “vajra,” which also means lightning; in Hindu mythology, vajra was the weapon of Indra, the king of gods.

The diamond is the hardest substances on the planet, and dates back billions of years. The diamond is the traditional birthstone of April and holds significant meaning for those born in that month, thought to provide the wearer with better relationships and an increase in inner strength. Wearing diamonds is purported to bring other benefits such as balance, clarity and abundance and symbolic of eternal love!

 

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The Ides of March

The Ides of March

Ancient Artifacts & Treasures, Inc.

The Ides of March is a day on the old Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15. The earliest Roman calendar, which consisted of ten months beginning with Martius (March), was believed to have been created by King Romulus around 753 B.C. At that time, dates were expressed in relation to the lunar phase of the month using three markers: Kalends (Kal), Nones (Non) and Ides (Id). The first phase of the moon, the new moon, was denoted by Kalends and signified the first day of the month; the first quarter moon fell on either the fifth or seventh day of the month and was referred to as Nones; the full moon fell on either the 13th or 15th day of the month and was referred to as Ides. The ides of March—March 15—initially marked the first full moon of a new year.

In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar by adding ten days to the 355-day year, instituting January 1 as the first day of the new year (beginning in 45 B.C.) and introducing a leap year every four years.

The Ides of each month were sacred to Jupiter, the Romans’ supreme deity. The day was marked by several and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts.

 

Julius Caesar

Bust of Julius Caesar

 

In 44 BC, it became infamous as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar. The death of Caesar made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history, as one of the main events that marked the transition from the Roman Republic, ruled by two elected consuls, to the Roman Empire, ruled by dictators.

Brutus

  Bust of Brutus

Concerned with Caesar’s increasing power and monarchical leanings, Caesar was stabbed 23 times resulting in his death at a meeting of the Roman Senate. Over 50 conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius, were involved. According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, “The Ides of March are come”, implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.”  This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare‘s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer  to “beware the Ides of March.”

Octavian/Augustus

Bust of Octavian/Augustus

Caesar’s death was a closing event in the crisis of the Roman Republic, and triggered the civil war among Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus, that would result in the rise to sole power of his adopted heir Octavian (later known as Augustus). This began the era of the Roman Empire.

Ides of March Denarius

Struck by Brutus to commemorate the assassination of Julius Caesar in 42BC

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Amber in Nature

   Amber

Amber in Nature

 Ancient Artifacts & Treasures, Inc.

Amber is a form of tree resin — exuded as a protective mechanism against disease millions of years. Often regarded as a gem, amber is actually an organic substance whose structure has changed very little over time, unlike that of other fossilized material, in which organic matter is replaced with minerals.

Amber has preserved ancient life to such infinitesimal detail that it even captures fragments of DNA of the organisms entrapped in it. Such a wide variety of creatures has been found in Dominican amber, for example, that scientists are able to reconstruct this ancient ecosystem with amazing intricacy.

Because amber oxidizes and degrades when exposed to oxygen, it is preserved only under special conditions. Thus it is almost always found in dense, wet sediments, such as clay and sand that formed at the bottom of an ancient lagoon or a river delta. While hundreds of amber deposits occur around the world, most of them contain only trace amounts of the substance; only about twenty deposits in the world contain amounts of amber large enough to be mined.

Among the dozens of major amber deposits scattered throughout the world, most are from the Tertiary period, which dates from 1.6 to 65 million years ago. The deposits vary in age, botanical origin, color, and composition, and occur on every continent except Antarctica. The largest piece of transparent amber in the world, which weighs 33.5 pounds, comes from northern Myanmar, and is 40 to 50 million years old. Sicilian amber — deposits of which are much smaller – is approximately 20 million years old. The largest North American deposit of Tertiary amber is in Arkansas.

Some of the oldest amber in the world is from the Cretaceous period, 65-95 million years old. This amber, is found in New Jersey, the Middle East, Japan and in Northern Russia—the largest deposit. This is the type of amber made famous in the movie Jurassic Park.

The world’s largest amber deposits come from the shores of the Baltic Sea, where 44 million year old amber has been harvested, traded, and crafted into decorative objects for at least 13,000 years. The 400-square-mile Samland Peninsula alone has produced ninety percent of all the amber in Europe. Until the mid-nineteenth century, pieces of Baltic amber were collected primarily from beaches. Since the 1850s, when engineers began dredging and mining operations, millions of pounds of Baltic amber have been mined.

Twenty-three- to thirty-million-year-old amber from the Dominican Republic is prized for the diversity of inclusions it contains. Dominican amber is mined chiefly to the north and east of Santiago, where landslides reveal veins of lignite — or blackened, fossilized wood — which accompany amber deposits. Using shovels and machetes, the amber miners may burrow deep into mountains, sometimes forming tunnels 100 to 200 feet long. Slightly softer than Baltic amber, amber from the Dominican Republic was produced by a Hymenaea tree, a now-extinct tree of the legume family. Dominican amber occurs in several colors, including yellow and deep red, as well as the rarer blue and smoky green.

Amber with insect

Amber with insects is rather scarce. Only one piece in one hundred of the Baltic amber has an insect inclusion. Dominican amber fossils are slightly less scarce with approximately one in ten having insect inclusions.

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Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day!

 Ancient Artifacts & Treasures, Inc.

While we should honor our fathers every day, this is the day set aside to officially honor our fathers. It is the day we honor our fathers including those who are no longer with us.

Father’s Day, a holiday honoring fatherhood, is observed in different forms throughout the world. Father’s Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society.

 

The History of Father’s Day

A customary day for the celebration of fatherhood in Catholic Europe is known to date back to at least the Middle Ages, and it is observed on 19 March, as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as the fatherly Nutritor Domini (“Nourisher of the Lord”) in Catholicism and “the putative father of Jesus” in southern European tradition. This celebration was brought to the Americans by the Spanish and Portuguese, and in Latin America, Father’s Day is still celebrated on 19 March. The Catholic actively supported the custom of a celebration of fatherhood on St. Joseph’s day from either the last years of the 14th century or from the early 15th century, apparently on the initiative of the Franciscans.

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