#flint and chert

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Eccentric Flint in the Form of a Scorpion.

Place of origin: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, or Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Culture: Maya

Date: A.D. 600–900

Medium: Stone, Chert

[echinoid-fossils-on-the-rocks]

Partial echinoids finds.

Good little Fossil Friday on Tumblr. Found recently this two parts of echinoids from different genus, both with the lengthy flint sponge on the gravel dirt track from an recently created parking lot sidewalks to an rural street.

The first is some kind like the previous found echinoids in their oval round shaped form without their patterns in orange flint.

But this is not flint chert, breaks different and has some pattern spots on it, like the molding of the shell on one side remains. Pressured into.

The other grays chert damaged seems to be an pressured fossil echinoid to beginn on side, and then broken apart in to 2, 3 parts.

Both were on the gravel dirt place overrun before from a lot of cars and people, but I can not tell if there were damaged since then, found no missing parts here.

Also an Etsy mail is one the way to me with some tumbled rocks & an bag of recognize fossils for collection, showing here and identification purpose myself & of the blog.

[panicroomsammy]

I am kind of shocked that no one (that I have seen) has done this yet so here it is: a comprehensive analysis of Black Sails through the lens of geology.

I live in the general region of the world where Black Sails takes place, and I have been thinking about the geology of Nassau a lot since watching the show. It started off as the assumption that Nassau would have the same geology as where I live based on location and Teach talking about a spring on an island in the area, and the other day my geology professor confirmed it when he pulled up a map of Nassau and the surrounding islands to talk about this specific kind of geology. Everyone in the show is always talking about how the island is unstable and impermanent because it is sand, but the lack of stability and permanence goes far deeper than that: it is in the very geology of the island itself. The geology of this region of the world is karst limestone, a porous rock that holds water in it and allows for springs like the one Teach mentioned to exist. It is also incredibly unstable. It forms sinkholes easily when disturbed, and even when this is not the case it is constantly changing, as limestone erodes easily. The island itself is just as unstable as the social and political events that play out on it. It is not only the superficial sand on the beach that is unstable, but the unchangeable nature of the island.

And then there is Flint. Flint is a type of chert. Chert come from limestone, the thing that makes up the island. Chert is formed through pressure that cause the features that defined it as limestone to disappear, but it’s mineralogy does not change. Flint the character is of Nassau in the way that flint the rock is of limestone. Flint is what James McGraw became because of Nassau. This feels like a too-obvious poetry situation. I could write it out, but you can see it so what’s the point?

Just one more thing: chert was what the indigenous peoples of the area used to make weapons. The weapons that would have been used to resist colonialism. Flint started a war against a colonial empire; he became the weapon to resist colonialism. This was not through an external process that is to be compared to the geologic processes, but through his own development of understanding of just how awful England is, something that could be likened to the process of a person purposefully making a weapon.

[garmrin]

top five rocks

5

Limburgite

Looks kinda like candy. Like reeses and chocolate, or maybe normal peanut butter and chocolate.

4

Epidosite

Pretty green colors.

3

Obsidian

Shiny black rock. Statistically less likely to kill you than coal.

2

Flint/Chert

Super cool rock.

You can make weapons out of it!

1

Gypsum

I know what you're thinking "those are some normal rocks, why those ones?"

Guess what, loser?

It's one of the main ingredients in chalk!

That shit is delicious. Orange is the best flavor, red second best, and blue third.

[thesilicontribesman]

Crammond Mesolithic Site, Crammond, Edinburgh, Scotland

Excavations carried out on this spot in 1995 discovered the remains of what at the time was Scotland's earliest known settlement. The archaeologists discovered stake holes and pits, together with thousands of hazelnut shells and tools made of flint and chert.

The stone tools included arrowheads, scrapers, burins (for punching holes) and small blades for hunting and gathering activities. The stake holes marked the site of tent-like shelters where the people sat making and using these tools and also where they prepared and cooked their food. The pits were filled with the burnt shells of hazelnuts which were an important food source. These shells have been carbon dated to around 10,500 years ago (between 8,630BCE and 8,250BCE). The people who camped here so long ago were amongst the first to discover Scotland after the last Ice Age had ended, less than 1,000 years earlier. It marks the start of the Mesolithic period in Scotland. This lasted until the arrival of farming in the Neolithic period at around 4,000BCE.

Sea levels rose when the last Ice Age ended. This flooded the land (Doggerland) which had joined the south of Britain to the continent. People had to move because of this, some moving north along the coast. These explorers were skilled at gathering all the things they needed to survive from the countryside around them.

We need to imagine how Cramond looked 10,000 years ago. This was a great place to choose for a campsite. The sea and the River Almond offered plenty of food, such as fish and shellfish. The local forest provided other foodstuffs and resources, such as wild animals and birds, nuts, berries and plants, as well as animal skins for clothing and wood for fuel and building.

[vpofcookies]

Technoblade assigned rocks/minerals based on vibes only:

(list below the cut)

Rubies, garnets, alexandrite

Ruby in zoisite

Amber, Honey calcite, citrine

Mahogany obsidian

Flint/chert

Smoky quartz, rose quartz

Cinnabar

Feldspar (especially k-feldspar)

Fire opal

Copper and gold

Emerald

Aragonite

bloodstone

Calcite (especially dogtooth and Icelandic spar)

Golden rutile quartz

Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

[dwemeri]

@trinimac​ i have thought about this back and forth for the greater part of seven months (not deeply but frequently) and yes, in-game stalhrim is referred to as magical ice but from a worldbuilding standpoint................ what if it were chert

visually stalhrim weapons look like knapped stone:

which like. isn’t necessarily reason enough; obviously yeah stalhrim visually resembles em but so do dragonbone weapons but being found on a volcanic island means that despite not knowing the Deep Geological History of skyrim (though the skyrim geological survey is cool as shit and provides good pointers) with significant heat and tectonic activity, silica from nearby volcanoes as well as a coastline (for limestone formation), conditions for chert/flint formation are favorable and therefore could be the reason for the specificity of solstheim being the only place to find stalhrim, with stalhrim being a unique variety of chert/flint (like ohio flint or pedernal chert or any other kind of chert/flint associated with a specific formation/member)

the analogy isnt perfect because stalhrim encases the (more recent) corpses but it sure is cool to think of the geological implications of a unique type of material found only on a volcanic island and what real-world analog can be found to flesh out a little detail of How It Would Actually Work.

[prasemvanguardgerman]

The new finds from the today trip to the mentioned stone road & one location with piles.

They are sponges aulaxinia sulficera - the in lengt two again and the round stone with the mold on it. I have already an specimen like this in dark flint.

Then the in half round open chert/ flint cut sponge with the inner pattern.

The first like this with an clear pattern of some struckture shown!!

And an absolutly tiny echinoid core, if you zoom in you can see the little reminicent pattern.

At first without cleaning, i was thinking it was an fungus on it, but afterwards the pattern is in the flint, likely calcite.

[togglesbloggle]

I was tagged by @wellmetmat in @perdvivly's ask meme that's going around- thanks for the interest! A few questions, they shall be answered. I won't tag anyone else for now, but anyone who sees this should absolutely respond if they're so inclined.

1. What virtue do you most often see in other people that you feel comparatively deficient in?

Easy one for me: diligence. Consistency, commitment, patient sustained focus on moderate challenges. Being there not on day 1 but on day 1000.

It's a skill I greatly admire in others, and I'm often drawn to those who can practice it successfully and consistently. The virtue of diligence has a way of making the world around oneself a dramatically better place, so being attracted to such people really works out well for me in the long run. Good parenting is perhaps one of the ur-examples here; the stakes of consistency get about as high as they reasonably can, and the rewards are just as clear. I've heard parents say that it's a time of very long days and very short years, and I often strive to give my days and my years the same quality- with not as much success as I'd like.

2. Show us an object in your daily life that you have an emotional attachment to - tell us a little bit about it if you want! (a favourite mug perhaps? socks with a cute pattern? dealers choice)

I actually live more-or-less surrounded by little curios that meet this description, so I had a lot to choose from. It's a lifestyle, or at least a method of interior decorating, that makes me really happy. I grabbed these three more or less at random. From left to right:

Every geologist has a collection of boring-looking rocks with cool science attached; this is the star of my collection. It's a microbialite, meaning roughly that it's a 'fossil' of an ancient microbial mat. This one is from the Buck Reef Chert in South Africa, basically a piece of flint. It's 3.42 billion years old, from the Paleoarchean. It's nearly seven times older than multicellular life, and even predates oxygenic photosynthesis (which is the pattern where plants or green algae uptake CO2 and release oxygen); the organisms that created this fossil breathed iron instead. So it's the sort of organism that was common in the shallower waters of Earth's oceans back in the most primordial ecosystems we have a record of. A relic from an alien world, older than a full third of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. I find it very beautiful to be biologically related to it, and to be part of the same uninterrupted organic chemical reaction.

In the middle is my orchestrator badge for a university class which conducts an elaborate simulation of the papal election of 1492 and its aftermath, run by a professor in the history department- this is last year's. You may recognize 1492 in the Italian peninsula as 'interesting times'. It's taken for class credit, but the heart of it is a LARP that plays out over the course of about two and a half weeks, with full costuming and set-dressing. Every student is assigned a particular period character; most are voting cardinals, some are monarchs ruling over France or Spain and trying to get a favorable pope for themselves, a few are invented minor roles like vote counters that wouldn't have been recorded by history (so that clever cardinals can bribe them, among other things; we have rules for how much the vote-takers can cheat). After suitable prep, we let them loose, and watch the poor bastards chase incentive gradients far enough to burn Europe to the ground. I myself pretend to be a mere orchestrator for the first three days of the simulation, and act mostly as a custodian for the monarchs, but then I dramatically reveal myself to actually be Sultan Bayezid II, of the Ottoman Empire, and then proceed to menace Europe with my impossible wealth, vast armies, and advanced technologies. It is, without fail, a delight.

The right is a watch given to me as a birthday gift some years ago by my dear sister, one of the marvelous transparent ones where you can see finely made gears and springs all working. It's effective for being taken seriously in Europe; combined with brown leather shoes and a thoughtful choice of shirt, it's enough to elevate you above the 'slobby American tourist' first impressions. The watch's finest hour was when I wore it to the front row of the Penn and Teller production of Shakespeare's Tempest. The show was full of stage magic to supplement the play itself, because of course it was, and this watch was irresistible to them during the audience-participation bits. Ariel the wind spirit made a great show of stealing it off my wrist, and of disappearing it and so on multiple times.

3. If you could choose, what level of fame would you want? How many people would you want to recognise you?

There's a level of demifame that I think is just right: enough respect within a widely-spread subculture to earn a comfortable income from fans, and relative anonymity outside it. Jo Walton is at about that sweet spot, for a concrete example. In practice, I think this translates to a few tens of thousands of people around the world that would recognize you, but the key is that they're not randomly selected: they're the people that you share that subculture with, so there's a baseline of mutual regard and shared values even when you're greeted out of nowhere by a stranger in a strange city.

4. Where do you feel language is least adequate to capture, communicate, or express your experience?

What a mean question to ask by text! Ha.

There's a set of experiences you can reach, which I happened to find both through scientific literacy and mindfulness meditation, involving the conditionality and contingencies of personal identity. You may have felt it a little bit when I was talking about my favorite rock, just now; you might not have. I have a powerful and sustained sense of myself as an expression of natural processes, or perhaps of the role of consciousness in illuminating the full depth of that process. It's quite comforting, I suppose, though even that's not a particularly apt description really. I think I called it being 'deep okay' a while back, though I don't recall where; I don’t think I came up with that label myself though. It was here!

5. If you had to come up with a question with the following criteria:

a) it should disuade knee-jerk reaction answers (i.e. it shouldn't be something people are likely to have spent a lot of time considering before)

b) it shouldn't be too specialised (the audience should be general, don't ask about people's top 3 byzantine spice merchants opperating between 754AD-816AD)

c) it shouldn't be needlessly emotionally charged or divisive

d) it should be a question you expect people to have lots of varied opinions about

What would your question be?

What are the kinds of magic you most wish for, or the laws of reality that you most wish could be overcome? What would this allow you to become?

---

Actually I lied I'm tagging @ritterum @femmenietzsche @eka-mark if they haven't been already.

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 13 Trivia

Extremely rare no-abs shirtless male character from Dr. Stone. Keep this picture safe, it's the only one of its kind…

This is the same location as Taiju passed through on his journey, but taken from an angle slightly further back. Some parts look a little different, but the same broken statues are present.

The monkeys that follow Senku around are Japanese macaques, which are a species of Old World monkey present across most of Japan. They are also the most northern-living primate (not counting humans), and as such are adapted to the colder Japanese climate in the year 5738.

Senku couldn't start a fire with this setup, but neither would Taiju or Yuzuriha. The wood is wrong: the bottom should be stable like a plank, with a divot and a notch in it for catching the embers. The drill part should be much thinner, without bark, and rounded at the end.

Chert is a 7 on the Mohs scale, so it's hard, but not "off the charts".

Senku uses two percussion techniques to shape the stone: hard-hammer and bipolar. The former is used more frequently as it is more precise, but the latter is used when the stone isn't good quality.

After the rough shaping, Senku grinds the stone to have a polished edge, which makes it more durable. Polishing flint/chert is one of the markers of the transition from the Mesolithic to Neolithic Stone Age, as polished axes were more efficient at clearing trees for farmland.

I spent some time testing how to make plant cord, and Senku's methods are correct. Scraping away at the plant removes the bark and non-fiber-y parts leaving the long strings behind. Flax, hemp, and nettles are good plant choices, as they have longer fibers for twisting.

Senku's rope looks like 1-ply, meaning only a single strand is being twisted. This seems to contradict his earlier hand motions, as twisting parts in both hands would result in 2-ply, but his inexperience may be the reason it didn't work correctly. More plys means stronger rope.

Rubbing sticks raises the heat of the wood through friction, but the goal is to get the wood hot enough to decompose into what's known as pyrolysis products. Those products burn in oxygen, which then raises the heat more and creates a chain reaction, setting the wood on fire.

Assuming this deer is an adult Japanese sika deer, it weighs around 40-70kg. Senku at this point probably weighs under 61kg. In order to confidently lift a deer, Senku needs to have a counterweight of at least 70kg.

In this case, he bends a small tree using his own weight (one handed, even), but the chance of this tree being that elastic and capable of lifting over 60kg without simply breaking is almost impossible.

The more realistic option would have been using a counterweight such as a large log or stone, so that when the trap is activated, the counterweight falls and the trapped animal goes up.

However, that requires Senku to be able to lift something that heavy above his head.

Making leather requires several steps that can take several weeks to several months to complete. The hides need to be scraped and soaked in special solutions, have tannins added, and other processes.

The gnawing Senku is doing happens after the tanning, and is used to soften the leather. The modern way to do it is to rub it across a smooth/rounded surface, such as a sawhorse or metal pipe. The bending will make it more supple and won't destroy your jaw.

We see that one of the snow monkeys has a baby on their back. Snow monkey babies are normally born from April to June. Four months after birth, the babies are too big to hang from their mother's underside, so they move to her back.

The earliest this time scene could be is therefore August, which is about 2 months before Taiju depetrified. Any of Senku's experiments or builds likely happened in those last 2 months, since we don't see him progress with anything else before then.

I know this chapter took a while, but the topics were too interesting and also testable so I went a little overboard with how hard I was looking things up haha!

[echinoid-fossils-on-the-rocks]

Some chunk of brown flint rock, with an inclusion of silicate in the middle of this piece. Flint does this often in their process, and if it’s broken apart then it shows to the outside world.

Have seen many of this or in rounder form with an crystal core or from, flint sponge in half in it.

Formed tiny small crystals like an small rift-like an geode in it.

If the rock were not broken then it would be likely in an small format.

[artifacts-archive]

Scepter with profile figures

Maya

7th–8th century

There is evidence that the Maya believed flint (or chert) to have been created when lightning struck the earth, thereby imbuing it with supernatural power. The association of flint scepters and lightning is explicit in this work. The larger of the two figures sits on a wide element with three small appendages that may represent a throne, and the smaller figure extends out from his back, as if being carried. He has foreshortened limbs: a leg that hangs off of the front of the throne, and an arm that extends forward with a gesturing hand. Each profile displays a sloping forehead and a fanned headdress whose distinctive frontal projection probably represents a "smoking celt," the hallmark of K’awiil, the Maya God of Lightning.

source

[artisticsamm]

SU / SUF: all character

Crystal gem:

Steven

Garnet

Pearl

Amethyst

Ruby

Sapphir

Peridot

Lapis Lazuli

Bismuth

Rose Quartz

Jasper

Biggs Jasper

Snowflak Obsidian

Larimar

Crazy lace Agate

Diamonds / Homeworld:

Yellow Diamond

Yellow Pearl

Blue Diamond

Blue Pearl

Pink Diamond

Pink Pearl / corrupted pearl

White Diamond

Doc Ruby

Eyeball Ruby

Navy Ruby

Army Ruby

Leggy Ruby

Holly blue Agate

     Background amethysts

Skinny jasper

    Background jasper

Carnelian

Aquamarine

     Background Aquamarine

Topaz

    Background Topazes

Blue Zircon

Yellow Zircon

Emerald

yellow jade

green jade

   Background jades

   Background Sapphires

Past Spinel

Now Spinel

Aubergine Pearl

Superfan Rose Quartz

Hippie Rose Quartz

Shy Rose Quartz

     Background Rose Quartz

Nice Lapis lazuli

Mean Lapis lazuli

Chert

Flint

Square Peridot

Structures / Pebble :

all Pebble

Comby

Parades Conscientes

A sentient Wall

A Part of the Sentient Blue Statue

Statue-like structure

The statue with the trumpet

Off colorés:

Rutile twins

Rhodonite

Padparadscha

Fluorite

Uncorrupted Gems:

Nephrite

   Background Nephrite

Orange spodumene

Albite

Dessert Glass

Blue Chalcedony

Big bird

Heaven Beetle

Earth Beetle

Watermelon Tourmaline

Larimar

Moonstone

White Topaz

Water Bear

Another Water Bear

Chrysocolla

Bixbite

Ocean Jasper

Biggs Jasper

Jasper

Zebra Jasper

Tongue Monster

Titanite

Angel Aura Quartz

Zebra Jasper

Blue Lace Agate

Lace Amethyst

Cherry quartz

Cluster Gems:

Hand-foot

Hand Cluster

Feetty

Harm-handy

bed mutant

Mouth leg mutant

Mouth Torsa mutant

Bodie-arm

hand body mutant

arm eye mutant

arm leg 2

arm leg 3

foot-hand

Armie

Leggie

Ancony

The Cluster

Fusion:

Garnet ( Sapphir & Ruby )

Opal ( Pearl & Amethyst )

Sugilite ( Garnet & Amethyst )

Sardonyx ( Pearl & Garnet )

Alexandrite ( Garnet & Pearl & Amethyst )

stevonnie ( Connie & Steven )

Malachite ( Lapis lazuli & Jasper )

Rainbow quartz 1.0 ( Rose quartz & Pearl )

Mega Ruby ( Ruby & Ruby & Ruby )

Ultimate Ruby ( Ruby & Ruby & Ruby & Ruby & Ruby )

Smoky Quartz ( Steven & Amethyst )

Zebra jasper ( Jasper & Biggs Jasper Corrupted )

Rhodonite ( Ruby & Pearl )

Topaz ( Topaz & Topaz )

Background Topaz ( Topaz & Topaz )

Lemon jade ( Green jade & Yellow jade )

Rainbow Quartz 2.0 ( Steven & Pearl )

Sunstone ( Garnet & Steven )

Obsidian ( Garnet & Pearl & Steven & Amethyst )

steg ( Steven & Greg )

Princess pearl ( Pearl & Pink Pearl )

Bluebird Azurite ( Eyeball Ruby & Aquamarin )

Angel larimar ( Larimar & angel aura quartz )

Game from:

Other bismuths : Unleash the light

Hessonite : Unleash the light

Demantoid : Unleash the light

Pyrope : Unleash the light

Squaridot : save the light & Unleash the light

Other Peridot : Unleash the light

Lonely Pearl : The Phantom Fable

Fable : The Phantom Fable

Quartz’s superior : Soundtrack attack

Pearl’s superior : Soundtrack attack

Ruby’s superior : Soundtrack attack

Sketchbook / Unknow from:

Concrete : art & origins

Geraldine  art & origins

Jarbicyte : art & origins

Crunch rock :  art & origins

Starite : art & origins

Budgerite : art & origins

Chazuski : art & origins

Morganite : end of era

Pearl and Ruby ( unfuse of Rhodonite ) : end of era

Sapphire : end of era

Ruby : end of era

Pearl : end of era

Quartz : end of era

Bismuth : end of era

Lunar Sea Spire Fusion hologram statue : S 1 EP 3

Lunar Sea Spire hologram Gem with a hairstyle resembling Blue Diamond's : S 1 EP 3

Lunar Sea Spire hologram Gem : S 1 EP 3

Lunar Sea Spire hologram Gem : S 1 EP 3

Lunar Sea Spire hologram Gem : S 1 EP 3

Lunar Sea Spire Fusion Gem Statue : S 1 EP 3

Lunar Sea Spire Statue : S 1 EP 3

First Mural Gem : S 1 EP 8

Second Mural Gem : S 1 EP 8

Third Mural Gem : S 1 EP 3

Statue in arena : S 1 EP 16

Statue in arena : S 1 EP 16

Statue in arena : S 1 EP 16

Statue from the Ancient Sky Arena with a gemstone : S 2 EP 6

Statue from the Ancient Sky : S 2 EP 6

Statue from the Ancient Sky : S 2 EP 6

The broken statue in the Ancient Sky Arena : S 2 EP 6

holographic memory of an unknown fusion of enemy : S 2 EP 6

Dark burgundy, Topaz or Garnet : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Teal, Aquamarine or Pearl : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Sky blue, jade : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Deep blue, lapis lazuli ( from crystal gem ) similar : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Blue, Unknown gem : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Deep periwinkle, Garnet or a Zircon : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Deep tealish-gray, Agate or lapis or jade : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Light pink, jade or quartz  : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Pink, Garnet or Zircon : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Burgundy Quartz : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Pink Quartz : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Dark burgundy, Tourmaline ? : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Hot pink, Tourmaline ? : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Bubblegum pink , Jade ?  : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Light indigo, Larimar or other  : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Mauve Quartz : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Salmon Pyrope / Hessonite or Jade  : S 2 EP 22 and others..

Periwinkle, Agate ? : S 2 EP 22 and others..

light salmon in color, Tourmaline ? : S 3 EP 3 and others..

dull purple, Bixbite or Sapphire or Nephrite : S 3 EP 3 and others..

Coral, Zircon or Pearl or Coral : S 3 EP 3 and others..

dark purple, Agate or Emerald : S 3 EP 3 and others..

Several Nephrite : S 3 EP 14

broken statue / fallen over statue ( Probably the same gem ) Quartz ? : S 5 EP 3

Next to garnet an Aquamarine? or Larimar? : S 5 EP 6

Next to bismuth, a jade or Rutile : S 5 EP 6

Nephrite-XJ Cut-763 : S 5 EP 12 

an unknown white Gem : S 5 EP 18

Tiger's Eye : S 5 EP 29

Beryl : S 5 EP 29

Serpentine : S 5 EP 29

Gem Similar to Peridot : S 5 EP 25

Gem look nothing it's just grey : S 5 EP 25

A small, pink-coloured gem that looks like nothing we've ever seen before : S 5 EP 25

An unknown gem resembling a Quartz or Jasper with short brown hair : S5 EP 29-32

An unknown gem that could be a pearl but doesn't have it : The Movie

A pink Gem looks like pearl but doesn't have it : The Movie

A Green gem that looks like a Quartz : The Movie

A pink gem that looks like Jade : The Movie

A gem looks like Peridot but with the body of a Quartz : The Movie

An unknown gem that could be a Tourmaline : The Movie

A gem that looks like Hessonite but with Zircon characteristics : The Movie

A small gem that looks like an aquamarine, but it's solid : Heap of Trouble

A precious stone resembling a rhombus with a statue of a woman on a lotus : Heap of Trouble

Citrine a gem to which garnet refers : Save the light

Pearl (one of Crystal's gems) fuses with an unknown gem : Steven universe Comics

Sources: Steven Universe Wiki

[fromthedust]

Scorpion - eccentric flint - chert - Maya - 600–900 CE

gold ring with carnelian intaglio scorpion - Roman - c.100 CE

Scorpio afer - now known as Heterometrus indus - Geer - 1778

Masao Ohba (Japanese, 1928-2008) - Scorpio - print

Don Dougan (American, b.1952) - Scorpion - cast silver - 1991

Bruno Amadi (Venetian) - Scorpion - lampworked glass - c.2003

Don Dougan (American, b.1952) - Scorpion - cast bronze - 2005

Scorpion - tattoo

[gemsona-advice]

What type of gem do you think would be good at archery?

I think any of them would work pretty well, but flint, chert, and obsidian in particular would be a neat little reference to some of the most common types of arrowheads found in archaeological digs!

[theflintwarlock]

Flint and the magic of history

For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors back to the stone age have been using flint (and obsidian) tools in areas where those rocks are abundant. The art of shaping flint has been lost to most for generations, but with the help of archaeology and extant ruins we can uncover some of the techniques they used. But what does that have to do with Witchcraft?

Lots!

First of all, it helps us connect to our ancient history and the spirits of our ancestors. Connecting to the practical work of our ancestors and ancient people is important for death and spirit work, even those whose language we would not understand at all today. Those people existed on the same land as us, and they can speak to us through these practices. We can feel a little bit of how they felt back when they lived their lives, how they might have shaped a tool they used to hunt and to carve wood to help build their homes. The very bricks used in the middle ages, even, were often knapped flint. Most especially ancient holy sites and churches.

Flint is a double-edged sword, used for hunting and building a home where you can be protected from the elements and the outside world. As such, it is an especially versatile rock in Witchcraft. It can protect you against the elements and it can carve new life through death, the hunting of prey that eas practiced from the time of our ancestors. It built the walls which are sacred to many Christians, medieval churches and monasteries were commonly made of flint. But its roots go much earlier than Christianity.

The rock itself is also extremely diverse! It is a type of quartz/chert that is rock hard, shattering in unique patterns when struck. It's razor sharp edges were used for cutting meat and as a scalpel, as well as arrow heads and small axes. It comes in many different colours, from red to orange, brown, grey-blue and almost black (though obsidian is black it is a similar but distinct stone). Encased in flint you can often find deposits of various minerals, including quartz, ancient sponges, fossils and iron to name a few.

I use each colour of flint slightly differently: red and orange flint for heart and connection to the earth and family, grey and blue flint for protection and stability. Hag stones are also commonly made of flint and they are excellent forms of protection. Flint pebbles and shards make an excellent addition to a grounding, protection or friendship spell bag, and can help bring you closer to the gods.

In my next post on flint I will talk more about the practice of flint knapping itself and how I use it in my practice.