Obsidian story

The very beginning Obsidian has been used since prehistoric times. Hard and sharp, it was ideal for making ordinary implements like knives, arrowheads, spear tips and scrapers. During the Stone Age, obsidian was preferred to flint wherever deposits could be found. In Armenia its use dates from the end of the Paleolithic up until the Bronze Age (14,000 to 3,500. BCE). In the Bronze Age metal gradually replaced stone for making tools. Obsidian was used less and less, then forgotten.

In the Bronze Age metal gradually replaced stone for making tools. Obsidian was used less and less, then forgotten. Its return as a prestigious stone during Antiquity The Egyptians at the time of the Pharaohs started to make use of obsidian for its preciousness, beauty and mystery. New York ‘s Metropolitan Museum has on exhibit several gold-rimmed vases and pots of obsidian from El Lahun, Egypt, dating from the 12th to the 16th dynasty (1991 to 1293 BCE)

Obsidian’s density and lustre give it a mysterious, impenetrable quality. The Egyptians also liked to use it for the eyes of statues. The most famous instance is undoubtedly the eyes in the funeral mask of the Pharaoh Tutanhkamen (1323 BCE). It was ancient Rome (from about 753 BCE to 500 CE) which returned obsidian to fashion in the West, when a certain Obsius brought some back from Ethiopia and gave it its name. Herodotus (484-425 BCE) preferred to call it ” Ethiopia stone”. From that time on its beautiful black color and shine, added to its rarity, made obsidian a stone of luxury, used for making ornaments and precious objects such as vases, mirrors and lotion jars, or else simply for setting in jewelry. Cub-ar thus perpetuates a tradition dating back several millennia, by creating objects with unique designs, sometimes reminiscent of the ancient creations that gave it its prestige.