ABSTRACT

Emerald, a green transparent variety of beryl, was one of the most highly prized gemstones in antiquity. The earliest known emerald mine is located in the mountain valley of Wadi Sikait in Egypt's Eastern Desert, where mining probably began toward the end of the Ptolemaic period in the first century BC. Most of the mining activity, however, dates to the Roman and Byzantine periods, from the late first century BC through the sixth century AD. The Romans referred to emerald as smaragdus and named the Sikait region Mons Smaragdus or Emerald Mountain. An archaeological ...

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