The history of the cultural development of mankind is inextricably linked with his ability to process stones. At first it was silicon, which gave not only excellent weapons, but also fire, and then - various precious minerals, on which a person honed his skill in creating beautiful works of art.
And the stones of the falcon eye belong exactly to the last variety. They had a rather strong influence on the cultural development of many peoples. This is a semi-precious variety of quartz. Mineral, which is perhaps the most common on the planet.
It happens blue, blue-black, blue, and also found in the form of a special speckled variety, which is sometimes called the "cat's eye". This variety owes its unusual appearance to the interspersed crocodile.
In general, color variations are very numerous: you can see stones of both beige and dark gray. At the same time, dark options are of the greatest value, since they are considered more ancient.
The stone of the
tiger-falcon eye is remarkable for its structure: dark olive needles seem to grow through it. A dark green mineral is especially good, in the center of which a cloudy spot is often formed, very reminiscent of a pupil.
Despite the relative transparency, the material is still quite muddy. The “eye” of light green color is very attractive, in which the combination of translucency and exquisite coloring gives a particularly strong impression.
A similar material, but with an even more pronounced transverse pattern, is called the zebra eye. Thus, basically identical materials are known to people under different names. So, falcon eye stones have dozens of variations.
Its origin is interesting. All stones of this kind are formed due to the silicification (i.e., substitution by silica) of the ribekite mineral, which at the same time retains its structure.
By the way, the term "crocodilite" is often referred to as the remains of ribecite, which in one form or another contain all the stones of the hawkeye.
Most of the deposits are located in South America, although there is evidence of production in the United States. This mineral is quite rare. It is too expensive to get it synthetically, but glass imitations can often be seen.
The beauty and value of natural stone is largely determined by its iridescence.
Extremely expensive samples are very rare, which at first glance no one will distinguish from natural amber. Their core is beautifully pierced with bright red veins of crocodile.
Fortunately, we know almost all the unique stones of the falcon eye, mined from ancient times. So, the most valuable and famous of them is in England today. A stone weighing 62.3 g was donated to the United Kingdom in 1886. Before that, he was owned by the king of one of the states of Sri Lanka, which at one time was captured by all the same English.
In addition, the large stone of the falcon eye (some of the photos are in the article) could be found in almost every tribe of the Indians of South America, since this mineral has been endowed with mystical properties since ancient times.