Everything about agate stone and its history of thousands of years!

Agate is an ornamental and beautiful stone that has many fans among different strata of people, and the range of people who use this precious stone for religious reasons is wider than elite and old geologists. Agate can be found in a wide variety of colors, but the main characteristic that distinguishes it from other stones, or more precisely, chalcedony, is the presence of bands. Of course, there are different types of agate, such as mossy agate and dendritic agate, which have bands on them. They don't have their own, but these agates also have components that appear like bands in some cases.

The opal stone, which is called agate in English, takes its name from a river in Sicily, which the Greeks called Achates. According to Wikipedia, between the 3rd and 4th centuries BC, the Greek philosopher and naturalist Theophrastus found this stone along the banks of the river Dirillo in Sicily - which the Greeks called Achates (Ancient Greek: Ἀχάτης) and today called Drillio - discovered and named it by the same scientist. As early as 300 BC, large quantities of agate were discovered in this river.

Over the centuries, agate was widely used because it was easy to find and came in many different colors and shapes. Therefore, it may be interesting for you to know how this stone is formed and knowing how it is formed will give you a better view of the reason for its abundance and how it is used throughout history.

Agate as a semi-precious stone Quartz mineral is known with the formula SiO2, whose crystals are so fine that they cannot be seen with a normal microscope. This mineral is naturally formed in volcanoes and is formed when silica-rich cave water continuously drips into the cavities between the rocks.

Silica accumulates in the small pores of volcanic rocks and over a long period of time, fills the pores completely. The layers change and form into micro-crystals and this is what is responsible for the banding in agate. The difference in agate colors is due to changes in temperature, pressure, and material accumulated during their formation.

So it is clear that agate is made by several different colored deposits of accumulated cryptocrystals, and this stone can be seen in the spectrum Found a wide range of colors. Sometimes, agate is artificially colored, and this process is quite simple due to its porosity, and the Roman people seem to have known this technique since ancient times.

Agate can be used in jewelry as well as in architecture (glasses colored) and searched in the production of vases which were quite common in the period of the European monarchy and the Renaissance period.

Agate is one of the most common materials used in the art of hard stone carving and has been discovered in many ancient places, which shows its widespread use in the ancient world. For example, the archaeological recovery of the Knossos site in Crete shows its role in the Minoan culture of the Bronze Age.