July, 1913. Notes on Turquois. 39 



the older form firuzag handed down by the lapidarium of Pseudo- 

 Aristotle ^ and al-Beruni. In questioning the archaeologists, we meet 

 a slight piece of evidence. In the kurgans of Anau ^ beads of turquois 

 together with those of carnelian and lapis lazuli have been discovered, 

 and as it is asserted, "in the earliest culture strata." They were used 

 as burial gifts with the skeleton of a child, and it is concluded in the 

 publication referred to that they must have come from Persia where 

 turquois is known both to the south of Anau and farther eastward on the 

 plateau. But the chronology of these antiquities of Anau is somewhat 

 uncertain, and by no means seems to me to be settled beyond doubt; 

 aside from this, the deduction that the Anau turquoises, granted that 

 they are what they are presented to be, must be of Persian origin is 

 not at all forceful, and not proved. They mjy have come as well from 

 Siberia where turquois was employed during the bronze age (p. 58), 

 though the locality where the ancient Siberian turquois was mined is 

 not yet known, or (why not?) from Tibet, or from some forgotten mine 

 in Turkistan. Reverting to Persia and glancing over the pages of the 

 history of the Sassanians (226-642 a. d.) ^ we look in vain for any testi- 

 mony that turquois formed an essential constituent of the culture of the 

 period. The only item I am able to trace is a statement made by 

 A. Christensen ^ to the effect that King Khosrau II (590 a. d.) pos- 

 sessed a game of backgammon (nard), the men of which were carved 

 from coral and turquoises. With respect to these turquois carvings 

 some doubts may be entertained, particularly for the reason that the 

 Persian mineralogist Muhammed Ibn Mansur who wrote about 1300 

 in the translation of Gen. Schindler ^ says that in the environment of 



1 J. RusKA, Das Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 43 (Heidelberg, 1912). 



2 R. PuMPELLY, Explorations in Turkestan, Vol. I, pp. 60, 64, 199 (Washington, 

 1908). 



^ Th. Noldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden (Leiden, 

 1879); Noldeke, Aufsatze zur persischen Geschichte (Leipzig, 1887); M. K. Pat- 

 KANIAN, Essai d'une histoire de la dynastie des Sassanides {Journal asiatique, 1866, 

 pp. 101-238); J. Marquart, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte von Eran (Gottingen 

 und Leipzig, 1896, 1905); K. A. Inostrantsev, Sassanian Studies (in Russian, St. 

 Petersburg, 1909). There is certainly no doubt that the ancient Persian kings and 

 subsequently the Sassanians possessed quantities of precious stones in their treasuries 

 and graves, but all indications are lacking as to what they were. Arrian (Anabasis 

 VI, 29) mentions gold earrings set with precious stones as part of the treasures 

 hoarded in the tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae. Compare further M. Dieulafoy, 

 L'art antique de la Perse, Vol. V, p. 137," and O. M. Dalton, The Treasure of the 

 Oxus, p. 9. 



^ L'empire des Sassanides, le peuple, I'^tat, la cour, p. 105 (Copenhague, 1907). 

 The source for this statement is H. Zotenberg, Histoire des rois des Perses, p. 700 

 (Paris, 1900); but the Arabic work (edited and translated by Zotenberg) written by 

 al-Ta'alibi (961-1038) can hardly claim any historical authenticity; it is purely 

 legendary in character and a counterpart to Firdausl's Shah-nameh. 



* Jahrbuch der k. k. Geologischen Reichsanstalt, Vol. XXXVI, Wien, 1886, p. 310. 



