Chalcedony

Горе вляво: Тъмнозелен и жълт яспис с червени петна (хелиотроп) (30х20х17 cm) от Неофит Бозвелиево, Източни Родопи (№9273, Национален природонаучен музей, БАН) Горе вдясно: Мьосбауеров спектър на жълт яспис с гьотит (образец aVu3, Върхари, Източни Родопи) Долу вляво: Червен яспис със зонални хематит-гьотитови коломорфни агрегати (образец Mo1, Източни Родопи; дюншлиф,║N) Долу вдясно: Пъстър ясписов къс (детайл) от Източните Родопи (№21683; Национален музей "Земята и хората")

Over recent decades, numerous studies have highlighted the importance of opal, chalcedony and quartz varieties, chiefly in volcanic, but also in metamorphic and sedimentary environments. The focus is to define accurately their structures, composition and properties, as well as to identify the factors controlling the formation and the ageing ofdifferent forms of silica. In the field ofarchaeological sciences efficient discriminants are the bases from which the origin and provenance of materials may be traced. Substantial efforts were made in the attempt to combine geochemical, mineralogical, petrographic and geological features with archaeological and archaeometric information. However the results show that data integration is complicated, and several unanswered questions remain. On the one hand, archaeological research has focused on technological and ethnographic aspects, mainly concerning use-wear and heat-treatment studies. Mineralogical characterization has often been limited to the identification of the material, frequently by Raman microspectroscopy alone. On the other hand, the Earth sciences have provided basic mineralogical, crystal-chemical and geological knowledge, but failed to provide a systematic data collection of sources and their geochemistry. As a consequence, large gaps persist in the identification of archaeological opals, chalcedonies and quartz varieties, and in the geographic mapping of possible sources. In this context, the present review aims to summarize the current academic debate on such issues, possibly to encourage further work in the field. After a brief introduction to terminology, the structure of opals, their colours and properties are discussed, followed by an introduction to silica dissolution/precipitation and opal-formation processes. The next section reviews the information available on use of opals and provenance from historical sources, mainly Pliny the Elder, followed by a short list of ancient and modern opal supply areas, together with a (necessarily incomplete) summary of the geological and geochemical information. The discussion then encompasses chalcedony, agate and chalcedony varieties (carnelian, sard, onyx, sardonyx, chrysoprase, Cr-chalcedony, ‘gem silica’ or ‘chrysocolla chalcedony’ and heliotrope), following the same scheme as was adopted for opals. Terminology, distinguishing features, formation conditions, information derived from Pliny’s books, past and current supply areas and, finally, archaeometric provenance issues are addressed for each type of material. As for chalcedony, a comprehensive note on moganite has been included. The nextsection focuses onchert, flintand jasper. Given the large amountof materials available on this topic, the present review must necessarily be considered introductory and partial. The discussion aims to provide useful indications on how to distinguish chert from flint and chert from jasper; secondly, the information provided by Pliny and the archaeometric state of the art on these materials is reviewed.
The last section examines quartz varieties: hyaline quartz (rock crystal), milky quartz, smoky quartz, rose and pink quartz, amethyst, citrine, prasiolite and blue quartz. An exhaustive mineralogical discussion on quartz is beyond the scope of this review; conversely a review of the historical information is provided, together with a brief list of major supply areas, a summary of the archaeometric studies performed on these materials, as well as an indication of the geological literature which can be used proficiently for provenance studies.

Here we present a database of responses by South African agate and chalcedony to heat treatment. This will assist analyses of heated stone tools not only in South African archaeological sites, but wherever heated agate and chalcedony pieces were knapped. The minerals are abundant worldwide. To replicate potential heating methods during the Stone Age we placed some minerals in a wood fire, some under coals, and others were buried in sediments beneath fires. Thermal responses include lustrous flaked surfaces, pot lid fractures, semi-circular internal fractures, rough internal surfaces, and crazing. Aerobic heating is implied by pot lid fractures. To explain the thermal responses we analyzed the minerals using X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, and carbon and sulfur analyses. Our chalcedony contains more water and impurities than agate, making it more vulnerable to thermal damage. Our method of combining field experiments with chemical analyses has global applications even though we expect that mineral components of agate and chalcedony will vary slightly in different parts of the world.

South African basalt-hosted chalcedonies provided an ideal case study, to (a) achieve information about the origin of mineral-forming fluids, the process of chalcedony formation and weathering alteration and (b) to verify if the geochemical and micro-textural characterization of chalcedony allowed multiple provenances to be distinguished. For the first time, Drakensberg chalcedonies from the Karoo Jurassic basalts and Windsorton chalcedonies from the alluvial environment of the Vaal River (traversing the Allanridge basaltic-andesitic lavas) were investigated by optical microscopy, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (16 O, 18 O). The results showed that the compositional differences observed in Drakensberg and Windsorton chalcedonies could not be explained by changes in host rocks composition. The tholeiitic basaltic-andesitic lavas of the Allanridge Formation (Pniel Group, comparison term for Windsorton samples) and the tholeiitic basaltic-andesitic lavas of the Golden Gate Unit (Drakensberg Group, comparison term for Drakensberg specimens) proved to be very similar, also in terms of alteration degree. Conversely, both geochemical and oxygen isotope compositions clearly supported a relatively low temperature, hydrothermal origin for all the investigated chalcedonies, further indicating that differences mostly occurred during their formation (fluid circulation). Moreover, several characteristics suggested deposition in non-equilibrium conditions, although oxidizing conditions were most likely. Weathering processes were effective in the alluvial environment only, leading to a wider compositional heterogeneity of Windsorton chalcedonies with respect to Drakensberg samples. Lastly, a correlation between color and chromophores (Fe and Mn) amounts was lacking while a correlation between the geochemical composition and the texture was clearly observed in several specimens.

LOCATION
8N 6E Sec. 13 SBM 34.78672000020 -116.30255000000

Site A features a tiny hill just east of the road which is covered with an amazing variety of colorful jasper. Most have layers of' brown and black, but one can also find jasper in shades of green, red and orange in an infinite variety of designs and color combinations (Mitchell, 1986, p. 50).

Rhombohedral calcite crystals fill the cracks and cavities in the easily spotted contact zone, high on the hill at Site B. Be careful when climbing since the hill is steep and the soil is somewhat loose. Tiny bubbles of calcite can be found filling voids in rocks lying in the wash a short distance west of the hill (Mitchell, 1986, p. 50).

Brilliant red, yellow and yellow-green hills mark Site C. The bright colors are due to the huge amounts of jasper lying on the surface. The hill farthest south seems to have the best quality and most vivid colors but all are remarkable. Take time to pick out only the most solid since much of the jasper found here is decomposing (Mitchell, 1986, p. 50).

The road to Site D is sandy and rough so four-wheel drive is recommended. Travel to road's end, park and hike about one-fourth of a mile to where seams of rhombohedral calcite crystals can be seen running through the canyon walls.· In addition, look for small chunks of chalcedony and agate in the wash leading to the calcite (Mitchell, 1986, p. 50).

More jasper, chalcedony and very nice agate can be found throughout the hills ·at Site E, and the mine dumps at Site F affords interesting slag, which can be used to make unusual display pieces (Mitchell, 1986, p. 50).

GEOLOGY

The jasper zones are lenticular zones in andesite and andesite tuff breccia near a contact with rhyolite tuff.

The article discusses the stone details of long swords, which became widespread in Sarmatia and in the Bosporus in the 1st – 4th centuries AD. Particular attention is paid to the pommels in the form of discs made of chalcedony, which are mounted through the hole on the top of the hilt and could be covered with bronze or silver appliqués, additionally decorated with gold leaf with inlays in cells, framed with granulation.
Finds of such discs originate from the Late Sarmatian burials of the Lower Don basin, interfluve of the Don and Volga rivers, the Lower Volga and the Kuban regions, but especially many of them were found in the foothills of South Urals. Even much more finds of such chalcedony disks come not from the territory of Asian Sarmatia, but from Kama basin, where more than 130 of them were found on 24 sites, dating from the second half of the 3rd – 4th centuries AD.
Despite the obvious evidence that in the North Pontic region and in the Bosporus, in particular, at the turn of our era, the custom of decorating the hilts of swords with various pommels, including those made of stone, is becoming widespread, a possible connection between the decoration of the hilts of late Sarmatian swords with standard disc-shaped chalcedony pommels with the Bosporan tradition today (before the complete publication of the materials of the necropolis of Pantikapaion) does not seem to be proven. According to the available, very incomplete information, one can only say that since the second half of the 2nd century AD long swords with such pommels appear both among the nomads of Asian Sarmatia and in the Bosporan Kingdom. The geographical distribution of finds of swords with such pommels, which prevail not in the Kuban region or on the Lower Don, but in the foothills of South Urals suggest that this connection is not very evident.
No less reasons exist to assume the origin of swords with such hilt pommels from the workshops of the Middle East. However, it is obvious that the pommels under discussion were made in various workshops, varying in different technological level of stone processing. Separate finds of them, including that in the disc form, originating from Dura-Europos, confirm the assumption of a possible Iranian manufacture of at least some of the long swords with the type of stone pommels discussed. Of particular note is the discovery of an iron sword with jade disc-shaped pommel, close in size to those from Sarmatia and the Bosporan Kingdom, near the skeleton found in Dura-Europos in tower 19; it is assumed that it was a Persian officer who died during the assault of Dura-Europos in 256 AD, although there are also grounds not to exclude the possibility that the so-called “Persian officer” could have been a Sarmatian mercenary at the service by the Sasanians.
It is very likely that swords with such chalcedony pommels could also reach the Kingdom of Bosporus with the Sarmatians. The assumption that chalcedony discs could penetrate into the Kama region from the Northern (North-Eastern Black Sea region), and even more – the explanation for the mass distribution of them by the looting of one or several workshops in the Bosporus, is clearly not consistent.

Recent studies have shown that the concept of skeuomorphism is of essential importance for the study of Roman vessels made of all materials. In current research, this term indicates the transfer of certain characteristics from one material to another. For the relation between vessels made of glass and (semi-)precious stones, this applies primarily to colour and decoration of the vessels, among other reasons because
the scarcity of extant Roman stone vessels makes a comparison of their shapes to vessels made of other materials quite difficult. The closer analysis of the relations between glass and stone vessels in the Roman Imperial Period shows that it is very likely that cases of skeuomorphism in this context always followed the general rule, which is, however, not always applicable to other materials, that the cheaper (glass) imitates the more expensive material (stone). Most imitations of precious stones occurred in the glass industry of the beginning of the Roman Empire, for which one can observe an adaptation of the key properties of practically all of the popular precious stones by the glassworkers. For late Roman times, imitations seem to continue on a rather limited scale, but there are still – mainly among the luxury glass vessels – some examples of new creations that maybe not imitated, but were at least inspired by precious stone vessels.

The Eastern Rhodopes are the main area of distribution of various in color and genesis jaspers in Bulgaria. With the help of Mössbauer spectroscopy and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, the iron status and distribution of different valence states of iron were studied in the three most important impurity phases of jasper – hematite, goethite and celadonite, which are associated with red, yellow to yellowish-brown and green coloration, respectively. In the Mössbauer spectrum of red jasper, Fe 3+ sextets characteristic of hematite and goethite are detected, in the spectrum of yellow jasper – Fe 3+ sextets characteristic only of goethite, and in the green jasper spectrum – dominant Fe 3+ and Fe 2+ doublets associated with celadonite. The EPR spectra of jasper samples reveal information about the concentration of iron-bearing phases and iron ions in tetrahedral coordination.

Abstract: A relatively recently known occurrence of silica mineralization from the region of village Devintzi, Kardzhali district, is studied. It outcrops in linear zones and concentric formations, which in their central parts are generally made of carbonate materials, and to the periphery – from colorful striped SiO2-phases including carnelian. SiO2-phases are represented mainly by chalcedony and in minor quantity by quartz, tridymite, quartzine and opal. Three morphological types of chalcedony are established – spherulitic, fine granular and radial fibrous chalcedony. Tridymite and celadonite are defined using XRD.

A large embankment slope with domed shape, in the western part of the studied occurence, is surmised to be with man-made origin, related to the ancient episodic extraction of raw agate suitable for making jewelry and especially glyptics.


Резюме: Изследвано е сравнително отскоро известно проявление на силикатна минерализация от района на с. Девинци, Кърджалийско. То се разкрива във вид на линейни зони и гнезда с пъстроцветени опали и жили, които в централните части обикновено са изградени от карбонатен материал, а към периферията – от разноцветни ивичести SiO2 – фази в т.ч. карнеол. SiO2-фази са представени основно от халцедон и в подчинено количество – от кварц, тридимит, кварцин и опал. Отделени са три морфоложки типа халцедон – халцедонови сферолити, микрозърнест халцедон и параболично влакнест халцедон. Рентгеноструктурно са установени тридимит и селадонит.

В западната си част проявлението представлява голям склонов насип с куполовидна форма, за който се допуска, че е възможен техногенен произход, свързан с воден в древността епизодичен добив на ахатова суровина, годна за изработване на ювелирни изделия от тип глиптика.

LOCATION
Sec. 29, T.8N., R.7E., SBBM, San Bernardino County (Southern Pacific, 1964. P. 163). The crushed stone chalcedony deposit is part of the Argos Selenite deposit group and the Jasper deposits of Mitchell (1986).

GEOLOGY
Chalcedonic replacements of tuff and clay beds associated with celestite deposits

This is my 12nd  article about Istanbul Maritime PaleoCulture after I discovered  Istanbul Maritime PaleoCulture which has the oldest and first artifacts , art works, tools and arms of humanity/humanbeing.
          Meanwhile, I completed the first cover of this Discovery and research “The Archaeological Discovery of Istanbul Paleolithic Culture I – Arrowheads, Spearheads, Lithic tools and Sculptures” [1] which includes the first 5 articles and 360 artifacts and detailed knowledges and my determinations and solutions.
          Some artifacts were approvad in my Researhgate questions in this period.
          And I have two Archaeological Museum attempts.
          I made two attempts for Istanbul Archaeology Museum in this stage. The research stayed on my shoulders. I researched and studied this paleolithic culture 2.5 years. This is hard Works and concentrated research.
          Meanwhile, We presented our proposal about “Establishing a Technical
based Inscription Science and Archaeology Research Institute” to İTÜ (Istanbul Technical University) Administration. And we also presented the prepared 4th version of this Research Institute Project on Researchgate to İTÜ Administration.
          We prepared a  36 pages detailed information about the Discovery of Istanbul Maritime PaleoCulture which includes a proposal for Research Institute. And we tried to convey this information/proposal  to The Presidency of The Republic of Turkey. We don’t know that the President read this information/proposal or not yet.
          There are approvals of some artifacts on Researchgate in my Researchgate questions.
          With detailed explanations and new close-shot and clear photographs , some important artifacts has been approved as human/homonin made artifacts.
          The datas inside this article  are usefull for  Material identification in archaeology and for  Archaeomaterials division of Research Institute.   
          I think these articles will be resources for Archaeomaterials lectures of related field such as archaeology, paleontology and archaeomaterials fields.  Infact, these would also be  lecture notes. 
            Infact bone debate was finished with datas inside my previous articles and related researchgate questions. . But I wrote this work to combine these datas together in an article.
          Aim is to show the stages of chalcedonization(agatization) and  to teach the stages.  Material idettification
            This is beyond  an article . This is a huge work.  This is the product of the long concentration, hard works and research of 2.5 years.  It is filling the Lack of knowledge in this field a little bit.
          4th and 5th articles are related chalcedony findings of Istanbul Maritime PaleoCulture. And there is e section of the first book of this research  And also an “Archaeomaterials” notebook, which includes my related notes, occured. .And there is some knowledge about chalcedony findings in my related researchgate questions.
            But this article is an overview of this subject.
          We are making the details  visible and stayable knowledge.
          We made “Fine parallel pressure flaked artifacts” stayable knowledge in the 9th article..
            And now, we are showing and teaching the identification of bone and partially agatized and agatized bone translucent Chalcedony artifacts by means of the surface structures, textures and appereance of the stages of fossilization on the artifacts in this 12th article.
          You can see the stages of agatization from close shot photographs of the surfaces of findings. Most of these findings are artifact. They had been processed by hominins.
          After my 10th article, a second fossilized toot that I found in İstanbul approved as a fossil hominid tooth in my 15th Researchgate question.
            I am not from osteoloarchaeology field. But after I discovered this paleolithic culture in İstanbul and after I started this research , I have faced this field a lot of times. You could face the osteoloarchaeology field a lot of times at this kind of interdisciplinary research.
          And osteoloarchaeology is a lecture in the MSc, Phd programs of “Establishing a technical based Inscription Science and Archaeology Research Institute in Istanbul” Project.
          This Institute is a necessity for the future of the researchs of Istanbul Maritime PaleoCulture. Because there are a lot of lack of knowledge in these fields.
            Unacceptances at the first stage of my Researchgate questions caused me to research and get in the details.
            Knowledge about the details and the specific terms in the terminology of a specific field helped me in my descriptions. And new clear photographs of artifacts also helped for acceptances.
            Infact This article was ready. But I wanted to apply XRF measurement to at least one partially agatized part and one bone part to see the element percentages. Then, I  published “the fosslized mandible with tooth” article as 11th article before this 12nd article.
              I couldn’t find any facilitiy to apply XRF measurement. I am publishing this article now. If we find any possibility to apply XFR, I would publish a second version of this article.
            I think this is the only one  Research of an archaeological discovery without budget and income which was carried to this approved point at which an archaeological  discovery  approved by means of 12 articles, 15 questions and one book in 2.5 years.
          Meanwhile, I am wrİting these paragraphs again here without being tired..
          İTÜ (İstanbul Technical University) Rectorship still hasn’t give an answer about our proposal of “Establishing A Technical based Inscription Science and Archaeology Research Institute”.
            We need to apply some technical measurements such as material determinations with XRF (X Ray Fluorescence) and archaeological datings such as ESR Dating. And We need to educate the academicians to supply continuity/stability in this research and field. İTÜ Rectorship should give their answer as soon as possible.
          And We should start to realize The Project of “Establishing A Technical based Inscription Science and Archaeology Research Institute” which was prepared. Humanity waits the results of these technical measurements. This became a slogan. We are repeating our slogan here “Humanity waits”.

The article is dedicated to the study of trade relations of Volga Bolgaria with the Oriental countries and Rus on the basis of a study, description, classification and cataloguing of various adornments made of carnelian, amber, jet, crystal, chalcedony (including agate and onyx), lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl from the pre-Mongol monuments of Volga Bolgaria, and clarification of their dating. The paper considers 333 items with an easily identifiable shape (with no consideration of the fragments) from the collections of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Museum of Archaeology of the Republic of Tatarstan, Bilyar state Historical and Archaeological and Natural Museum-Reserve, the State Historical Museum and others. This study is the first generalizing work on the typology of beads from monuments dating back to the pre-Mongol period.

The article highlights classification of the beads and pendants from carnelian, amber, gagat, crystal, chalcedony, lapis lazuli stored in the exposition of the Bilyar Museum. Bilyar fortress is considered a reference monument of the pre-Mongol Volga Bulgaria. 64 decorations were studied. The scheme proposed by A.V.Artsihovsky were used for description and classification of the decorations. The author describes decorations, gives the analogies from the other medieval settlements, traces the trade routes and specifies the towns, where the beads and their preparations came from. Decorations made of ornamental stones were mainly spread from Central Asia or through Central Asia. Carnelian and amber decorations were widespread. The availability of amber raw materials on the Bilyar fortified settlement testifies about the local production of amber artifacts. Also, the presence of defective carnelian beads, tells about the local refinement of this category of goods.

The thermal behaviour of silica rocks upon heat treatment is dependent on the constituent minerals and petrographic texture types. These constituents can be shown to be mainly quartz in the form of two types of chalcedony (Length-fast (LF) chalcedony and Length-slow (LS) chalcedony, the latter also being termed quartzine) and moganite. Even though the thermal behaviour of LFchalcedony is well understood, major uncertainties persist concerning the high-temperature behaviour of LS-chalcedony and moganite. We present here a comparative study of these three constituents of common silica rocks. Our results show that the chemical reaction is the same in all three, Si-OH ? HO-Si ? Si-O-Si ? H 2 O, but that the reaction kinetics and activation temperatures are very different. LS-chalcedony begins to react from 200°C upwards, that is at temperatures 50°C below the ones observed in LF-chalcedony, and shows the fastest reaction kinetics of this 'water' loss. Chemically bound water (SiOH) in moganite is more stable at high temperatures and no specific activation temperature is necessary for triggering the temperature-induced 'water' loss. Moganite is also found to act as a stabilizer in silica rocks preventing them from temperature-induced fracturing. These findings have implications for the study of potential heat treatment temperatures of silica rocks (in industry and heritage studies), but they also shed light on the different structures of SiO 2 minerals and the role of OH impurities therein.

Chalcedony is a spatial arrangement of hydroxylated nanometre-sized a-quartz (SiO 2 ) crystallites that are often found in association with the silica mineral moganite (SiO 2 ). A supplementary Raman band at 501 cm -1 in the chalcedony spectrum, attributed to moganite, has been used for the evaluation of the quartz/moganite ratio in silica rocks. Its frequency lies at 503 cm -1 in sedimentary chalcedony, representing a 2 cm -1 difference with its position in pure moganite. We present a study of the 503 cm -1 band's behaviour upon heat treatment, showing its gradual disappearance upon heating to temperatures above 300°C. Infrared spectroscopic measurements of the silanole (SiOH) content in the samples as a function of annealing temperature show a good correlation between the disappearance of the 503 cm -1 Raman band and the decrease of structural hydroxyl. Thermogravimetric analyses reveal a significant weight loss that can be correlated with the decreasing of this Raman band. X-ray powder diffraction data suggest the moganite content in the samples to remain stable. We propose therefore the existence of a hitherto unknown Raman band at 503 cm -1 in chalcedony, assigned to 'free' Si-O vibrations of non-bridging Si-OH that oscillate with a higher natural frequency than bridging Si-O-Si (at 464 cm -1 ). A similar phenomenon was recently observed in the infrared spectra of chalcedony. The position of this Si-OH-related band is nearly the same as the Raman moganite band and the two bands may interfere. The actually observed Raman band in silica rocks might therefore be a convolution of a silanole and a moganite vibration. These findings have broad implications for future Raman spectroscopic studies of moganite, for the assessment of the quartz/moganite ratio, using this band, must take into account the contribution from silanole that are present in chalcedony and moganite.

In this chapter of my book "Venetian Colour",  I argue that the technical innovations of the Murano glassmakers and the mosaicists of the Mascoli Chapel prepared the way for the chromatic achievements of Giovanni Bellini and Titian.  The glassmakers, with their refinement of "cristallo" and sandwich-glass, "millefiori", "lattimo" and chalcedony glass, demonstrated the beauty of translucent colour and the value of pearly white.  Colour was transfigured as molten or hovering in space.  The glass mirrors of Murano, developed in the 1490s, again revealed colours as mobile or fleeting.  The painters responded by developing oil glazes and by contrasting translucent colours with the density of lead-white.

After I discovered The Istanbul Paleolithic Culture in Kadıköy Region,
I have published three short articles about Istanbul Paleolithic Discovery  in  “academia.edu” and “researchgate.net” sites.         
            Because I didn’t want to wait to publish the first cover “THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY OF ISTANBUL PALEOLITHIC CULTURE I - ARROWHEADS, SPEARHEADS, LITHIC TOOLS AND SCULPTURES ” of this archaeological discovery.
                   
                  These three short articles are ; 
1- “The Archaeological Discovery of Istanbul Paleolithic Culture  Preknowledge and Artifact Samples ” ,
2-   “ A Stone Axe and  A Stone Hammer which have Special  Connection Geometry from İstanbul  Archaeological Discovery” and
3- “Two Special Sculpture from Istanbul Paleolithic Discovery” .

      I wanted  to show these artifacts to academicians as soon as possible. In fact, I published these artifacts in my facebook group. “Istanbul  Paleolitik Kültürü (Istanbul Paleolithic Culture)” before.

      These three articles  and this forth article  will be included in “THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY OF ISTANBUL PALEOLITHIC CULTURE I - ARROWHEADS, SPEARHEADS, LITHIC TOOLS AND SCULPTURES ” which include approximately 220 artifacts with their photographs and my detailed explanations.
                        I will publish this complete work next month , as I sad before.
            We show some interesting translucent agate artifacts in this article.
These translucent agate artifacts are small sculptures which have two or three human profiles. And they have white patinas on their surfaces. These white patinas prove the realness of these artifacts.
                    Most of the flint artifacts have carving traces on their surfaces such as primary and secondary flake traces. These carving traces show that these parts was produced, and human-made. These flints are flaked artifacts.
          And there is another interesting thing. Some profiles are Neanderthal type. But some profiles are today’s human face profiles. This shows us that two different human types had lived together  in İstanbul in Lower Paleolithic Period.
                  I think these articles and coming first book of this discovery will be resource and lesson subjects  for this and next generations in archaeology and relatad fields.

Agate was a variety of chalcedony.  And also Calchedony was translucent. Therefore We could called these translucent artifacts  both as  “translucent agate” and as  “chalcedony”. 
I want to focused the importance of these artifacs. İstanbul Paleolithic Sculptures which include these translucent agate(chalcedony) sculptures are the first paleolithic  sculptures which was found in Istanbul.
Now,  Let’s look at the our translucent Agate/ Chalchedony Artifacts from İstanbul Paleolithic Culture.