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Ancient gemstones from India and Sri Lanka

Pictures after Osmund Bopearachchi

Gold finger ring (44.9 x 28.3 x 18.8 mm) set with a high-domed ruby cabochon bearing two engravings:
a) an “Indus River dolphin”
b) a monogram associated with the Greek king Menander I Soter (150–130 BCE). 
Eastern Hellenistic, ca. 2nd century BCE, found by a chance in Ai Khanoum.

Gold ring, set with a ruby cabochon and two rough diamonds, made ca 300 BC, Afghanistan/Pakistan region.
Pictures Osmund Bopearachchi

Before the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in the 1720s, most came from India, a few from Borneo. The ring was made by a Greek goldsmith who had travelled as far as what is now Ai Khanoum, a Greeko-Bactrian city in the north of Afghanistan. A pink star ruby, almost certainly from Sri Lanka, is flanked by two small diamond crystals, which are most probably from the Golkonda mine in India. Found in 1999, it is the earliest surviving diamond ring from an archaeological excavation. [Osmund Bopearachchi]

after Osmund Bopearachchi

Gold ring with a blue sapphire from Sri Lanka, decorated with acanthus leaves, found by a chance in Ai Khanoum.

Photo Gonzalo Salcedo

Gold finger ring (26.6 x 26.3 x 11.75 mm) set with an irregularly-shaped cabochon, a dark blue sapphire. Gupta or Hephthalite, 4th–6th century CE.

Obrazek posiada pusty atrybut alt; plik o nazwie 24-c9824dff78.webp
after Osmund Bopearachchi

Pair of earrings with the high quality garnets decorated with “Oxus river dolphins”, found by a chance in Ai Khanoum, Afghanistan. [O. B.]

Obrazek posiada pusty atrybut alt; plik o nazwie Begram-Stupa-1st-2nd-century-671x1000.png

The Begram stupa, 1st-2nd century reliquary decorated at the top with a blue sapphire from Sri Lanka.

For more about the Begram stupa read >>

Vessels with framed figures. Bejeweled cups

https://oliverhoareltd.com/object_natural_world/5-an-inscribed-yellow-sapphire/

Inscribed yellow sapphire from India or Sri Lanka, 4th/3rd C BCE
found by a chance in Ai Khanoum [O. B.]

Inscribed in Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ

“The inscription reads Basileios Seleukou – [Belonging to] King Seleucus. Four separate rulers of the Seleucid Empire were named Seleucus between 305 and 175 ,0, and although it is not possible to determine which Seleucus once owned this gem, Derek Content wrote the following about it:

‘This large and impressive jewel bears all the expected wear patterns of long use. [ . . .] This gem may also be considered one of the earliest named gems in precious stone, the first inscribed true gemstone in a long line of precious gems. Whether engraved in cameo or intaglio, illustrious individuals across ages and cultures frequently have felt the need to immortalize their names in the hardest, most precious material available to them.’“