Male and female stones (1)

Text
In the series dealing with stones, Abnu šikinšu, the specifications added to names of stones are rare, except for the qualification “male” or “female”. Male and female varieties of stones are known from classical texts (Pliny, NH 36.39 (21), 37.38) and from late Antiquity. For example, in Lithica Kerygmata 8.6 it is said of the topaz that “it is green, … hard, compact, transparent. This is the male variety. The female variety is lighter.” Male and female stones are named not only in Mesopotamian magical text (e.g. BAM 473 iii 22), and in stone lists, but they are so classified also in the “Glass texts,” the Assyrian prescriptions for producing coloured glasses, which speak of male and female frit.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
BAM 473 iii 22
Lithica Kerygmata 8.6
Pliny the Elder, Naturalia Historia 36.39 (21)
Pliny the Elder, Naturalia Historia 37.38

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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