Oligocene Sahara Desert, Egypt-Libyan Border In the raging heat produced by a meteorite impact 28.5 million years ago, a mass of molten desert sand splashed upward and fell over a 4,000-square kilometer area in Western Egypt, creating the beautiful and mysterious material known as Libyan Desert Glass. Ancient Egyptians were clearly aware of the uniqueness of this material, as is evidenced by its presence as a carved scarab in one of King Tut's amulets. One of the larger specimens of Libyan Desert Glass ever offered at auction, this medium-green colored piece is unusually pristine. The smooth top side displays regmaglypt-like impressions and the bottom, which is somewhat porous, is flat, with sharper edges. The smooth side exhibits small white spheres of cristobalite, a form of quartz diagnostic of meteoric origin (cristobalite only forms at temperatures exceeding 1,470 degrees centigrade.) An added bonus is a natural hole through the specimen, which is larger on the bottom side, narrowing to the top side. Weighing 1292 grams and measuring 6 x 4 x 3 1/4in
Oligocene Sahara Desert, Egypt-Libyan Border In the raging heat produced by a meteorite impact 28.5 million years ago, a mass of molten desert sand splashed upward and fell over a 4,000-square kilometer area in Western Egypt, creating the beautiful and mysterious material known as Libyan Desert Glass. Ancient Egyptians were clearly aware of the uniqueness of this material, as is evidenced by its presence as a carved scarab in one of King Tut's amulets. One of the larger specimens of Libyan Desert Glass ever offered at auction, this medium-green colored piece is unusually pristine. The smooth top side displays regmaglypt-like impressions and the bottom, which is somewhat porous, is flat, with sharper edges. The smooth side exhibits small white spheres of cristobalite, a form of quartz diagnostic of meteoric origin (cristobalite only forms at temperatures exceeding 1,470 degrees centigrade.) An added bonus is a natural hole through the specimen, which is larger on the bottom side, narrowing to the top side. Weighing 1292 grams and measuring 6 x 4 x 3 1/4in
Try LotSearch and its premium features for 7 days - without any costs!
Be notified automatically about new items in upcoming auctions.
Create an alert
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
