Greenstone (archaeology)

Greenstone staff, 1550 - 1600 AD, from the Tairona culture of present-day Colombia.

Jade ceremonial ax from Tobago

For other uses, see Greenstone (disambiguation).

Greenstone is a common generic term for valuable, green-hued minerals and metamorphosed igneous rocks and stones, that were used in the fashioning of hardstone carvings such as jewelry, statuettes, ritual tools, and various other artefacts in early cultures. Greenstone artefacts may be made of greenschist, chlorastrolite, serpentine, omphacite, chrysoprase, olivine, nephrite, chloromelanite among other green-hued minerals. The term also includes jade and jadeite, although these are perhaps more frequently identified by these latter terms.

Greenstone minerals were presumably selected for their color rather than their chemical composition. In archaeology therefore, having a loosely applied general term is at least partially influenced by the observation that ancient cultures often used and considered these various green-hued materials as interchangeable.

The greenish hue of these rocks generally derives from the presence of minerals such as chlorite, hornblende, or epidote.

Ancient China and Mesoamerica are particularly noted for the prevalence and significance of greenstone (particularly jade) usage. Greenstones also figure prominently in the indigenous cultures of southeastern Australia, and among the Māori of New Zealand (known as Pounamu).

External links

• New Zealand Greenstone (1935 paper by H. D. Skinner)
• Geology of New Zealand Greenstone (1935 paper by F. J. Turner)

References

Hendon, Julia A.; and Rosemary A. Joyce (eds.) (2004). Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice. Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology. Oxford, UK and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23051-3. OCLC 51536572. 

Kipler, Barbara Ann (2000). "Greenstone". Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. pp. 217–218. ISBN 0-306-46158-7. OCLC 42692203. 

Pool, Christopher A. (2007). Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-78882-3. OCLC 68965709.