What is the name of the stone with the cross?

Almost all Armenian religious buildings are decorated with an Armenian khachkar (cross stone). On the walls of many churches you can see carved images of the cross, which have their own special meaning. Small crosses were depicted in honor of the patrons and benefactors through whose efforts the church was built. The Armenians respected and worshiped the cross so much that this symbol inspired stone craftsmen to create these unique works of art, which received a name consonant with their content – cross-stone (khachkar). There are khachkars in almost every corner of the Armenian world. They are never repeated. The main purpose of the khachkar is to establish a connection with God.

The emergence of khachkars

The cross, as a symbol, has appeared for us since the 4th century. In the 4th-7th centuries, their images were still primitive. Beginning in the 7th century, tetrahedral khachkars appeared, very few of which have survived to this day. After the 8th century, rectangular stable types of khachkars began to be created. And from the 11th century, the concept of a khachkar known today was formed, which includes all geometric and plant elements. Later, figurative elements, such as images of saints, also appeared on khachkars. Another hypothesis associated with the emergence of khachkars was the desire of people to have more silent evidence of Christianity. And the installation of crosses was a fairly influential way of spreading Christianity. There are many reasons for erecting a khachkar. There are khachkars erected in honor of some kind of victory. There are khachkars installed on the roads. There are also so-called khachkars-saviors.

Description of khachkars

Khachkars are rectangular monuments that are installed in the courtyard of the church, in memory of the adoption of Christianity, national holidays or martyrs. The master himself chooses the style and images of the khachkar. The main raw material of the khachkar was yellow-reddish tuff. First, the cross was engraved, then it was decorated with images of national symbols – grapes and pomegranates. The lower part of the khachkar was often engraved with an infinity sign, which is also one of the spiritual symbols. Together with the cross, it symbolizes the continuity of life and national ideas about faith. The most unique element of the khachkar is its infinity symbol. There are 5 important and treasured points on the khachkars. Four of them correspond to the edges of the wings of the cross, and one is the point of their intersection. The crossing point was the most important point on the cross. The upper part is called the crown, it symbolizes the heavenly kingdom. The lowest point symbolizes the fall of hell. The right side was associated with the distribution of gifts, and the left with the forgiveness of sins. The ritual of establishing khachkars is also important, the most important part of which is their sprinkling. First, the center of the cross is consecrated, then the crown, that is, the upper part of the khachkar, then the right and left sides, and finally the lower part. Sprinkling is carried out under special sharakans (Armenian church hymns).

Khachkars All Saviors

Over the thousand-year history of this craft, numerous khachkars have been created. However, only four of these many khachkars depict Christ. These khachkars mainly depict scenes of the crucifixion and descent of Christ. They are called the All-Savior khachkars. The question arises why they were called that. In the old days, believers were sure that these khachkars were capable of curing various diseases or protecting them from evil. That is why these khachkars received such significance. Khachkar Amenaprkich (All Savior) / Photo from Ethnos Facebook page All the most famous khachkars in Armenia, the All-Saviors, were created within 12 years. The oldest of these monuments is located in Haghpat and dates back to 1273. According to the inscription on the khachkar, it was erected by the bishop of the complex. Two of the remaining three khachkars are located in Etchmiadzin. One of them is carved on a tree and brought to the Etchmiadzin Museum from the Havuts Tar Monastery. The other, fourth khachkar, the All-Savior, is located in the village of Dsekh.

Khachkars of Noratus

The village of Noratus is located in Gegharkunik region, 5 km from the city of Gavar. Noratus is one of the oldest settlements in Gegharkunik region. The rural cemetery is famous for its numerous khachkars. It is also called the field of khachkars. About 1000 khachkars were erected here. The oldest of them is an Armenian khachkar from the 9th century. But most of the khachkars are from the 13th-14th centuries. According to legend, the army of the Seljuk Turks with their large army goes against the army of King Gegham. The Armenian army was small, and the king orders them to wear uniforms on the khachkars. From a distance, it seems to the Seljuk army that the Armenian army is very large and, panicking, they run away. Thanks to this, the Armenian army wins.

Khachkars in Julfa

Julfa was one of the oldest and largest cities in Historical Armenia. It was located on the territory of the Erndzhak region in Greater Armenia, on the left bank of the Araks River. The city used to have 3000 houses and about 9 churches and monasteries. Julfa was also known for its large cemetery. The traveler Alexander de Rod, who visited Julfa in 1648, said that there were more than 10.000 khachkars on the territory of the cemetery. According to some sources, at the beginning of the 20th century there were about 6000 khachkars left in the cemetery, but by the end of the century there were only 3000 left. The earliest khachkars date back to the 9th-10th centuries. Khachkars in Julfa The khachkars in Julfa differed not only from the khachkars of the previous period, but also from those that were created at the same time in neighboring territories. Firstly, the length of the khachkars in Julfa was three to four times greater than the width. Secondly, the stone did not taper closer to the base and did not have a pedestal. On the cornices of khachkars Christ, the evangelists and the Virgin Mary were often depicted. On the bottom of the stone one could see an image of the deceased and an epitaph. However, from 1998 to 2005, the mass destruction of khachkars in Julfa began. And in 2005, by order of the Azerbaijani government, all 3000 standing khachkars were destroyed and turned into construction materials. A year after the final destruction of the khachkars, restoration work began. Today, many imitations of these khachkars are being created, which are placed in church yards and in various parks. 20 copies of such khachkars were installed in the city of Gyumri. Over time, the Armenians created and erected about 50 khachkars, although many of them today are not as stable or intact. Due to enemy attacks, disasters and atrocities, some of them were destroyed, while the rest continues to be under threat. In 2010, the art of the Armenian khachkar, the symbolism and craft of khachkars were included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The copyright for this article belongs to armgeo.am. The content of the article can be quoted or used on other sites only with an active link to the source.

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Mother Nature sometimes produces funny creatures. And we never cease to be surprised by them again and again.
This mineral – staurolite (from the Greek “stauros” – cross and “litos” – stone) amazes not only the person who picked it up for the first time, but also those who have seen this many times.
This complex aluminosilicate of iron and aluminum is quite widespread in nature and is formed during metamorphism – a change under the influence of colossal temperatures and pressures during the gradual immersion of high-alumina rocks – mainly our ordinary surface clays – into the bowels of the earth. This is how mica schists appear, containing in addition to basic quartz, feldspar and mica-muscovite and other minerals – staurolite, kyanite, andalusite, sillimanite, almandine garnet.
The appearance of a “single” staurolite crystal is quite trivial – it is short, less often long-prismatic, reaching a length of up to 10, maximum 15 centimeters.

The color is usually reddish or yellowish brown, brown to almost black, rarely dark red (sappare red), dark blue (cobalt-bearing lusakite) and yellowish (zinctaurolite). The most common variety is manganese-containing Nordmarkite. Staurolite is practically opaque, only faintly visible in thin chips or at the edges of small crystals. But some varieties of sappare red from St. Gotthard and the Alpe Sponda deposit in the Swiss Alps and Brazil are more transparent and even cut. Such stones are rare and small, their weight usually does not exceed 2 carats.

Most often, staurolite is opaque also because its crystals were formed metasomatically in mica schists, “sprouting” from the inside and therefore are stuffed with inclusions of mica, garnet, magnetite, ilmenite, rutile. that is, those minerals that are more stable in composition, which they were unable to “digest” their growth. Such staurolite, heavily contaminated with impurities, is called xantholite.
But most often staurolite is found not in the form of single crystals, but cruciform or more complex twins.
What are “doubles” from the point of view of mineralogy and crystallography and what are they eaten with? The phenomenon of twinning is characteristic not only of staurolite, but also of many other minerals. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that any crystal has a clearly defined internal geometry of the crystal lattice, which you probably knew from school. So, in this spatial geometry there are planes that can be completely identical to each other in different mineral individuals. It is along these planes that twinning occurs. It can be different – there are, for example, intergrowth twins, when two crystals grow together with the same faces, and there are growth twins, such as in staurolite, or in the quartz we are used to. There are also so-called polysynthetic twins, when an outwardly “normal” crystal consists of many very thin and flat individuals, each rotated 180 degrees relative to its neighbor. They are obtained during the decomposition of solid solutions. Such a miracle is characteristic, for example, of plagioclase feldspar and is one of the reasons for “iridization” – the iridescence of labradorite.
Often, not two crystals grow through each other, but three, four, or even six! As, for example, in the “pawn” crystals of chrysoberyl alexandrite.

But under no circumstances should it be five! Unlike living nature, the fivefold axis of symmetry is prohibited in crystals.
And one more thing. Crystals, oddly enough, love to twin and grow much larger than single crystals. 🙂
This is explained quite simply. The growth of a crystal involves the collection and expansion of its crystal lattice due to ions coming from outside (for example, from the surrounding solution or melt) . Only it is more advantageous for these ions to “settle” at the incoming corners of growing twins, that is, where the angle of entry of one crystal into another is located … Why? Out of laziness 🙂 Energetically more profitable. Try to keep a ball from a bearing in balance on a sharp edge of some object, imagining that this is an edge of a crystal, or on a plane (face). If it is even slightly inclined, it will tend to roll into some some hole, maintaining a minimum of potential energy. This “hole” for ions is the reentrant angle of twinned crystals.
But let’s return again to staurolite. Most often, it forms twin accretion in the form of an oblique cross, with incoming angles of 60 and 120 degrees, or more complex accretion not “in the plane”, but in space.

“Straight” crosses, with convergence angles of 90 degrees, are less common and more highly valued. It is because of such doubles that it received the name “cross-stone” and this is due to its popularity among Christians. It was also called the “Stone of fairies”. Also in Europe, it received the name “Basel baptismal stone”), since in Swiss Basel such a cross was hung on the neck of children at baptism. This stone is also very popular in Great Britain and France, where rosaries are made from it.

And, of course, the “fantasy” doubles, tees and even gears of staurolite are funny; their shapes can be very unusual and whimsical.

A little about the deposits of this stone. As I said above, it is quite common everywhere, but is not mined everywhere. In Russia, this is primarily the Keivsky tundra on the Kola Peninsula, from where almost all the stones shown in these photographs are from the Semiostrovye region on the river. Eloyk and Mount Shuururta. There are also good staurolites in the area of ​​the Karelian mountain Khizovar. There, it is often found with beautiful blue kyanite and bright green fuchsite schists.
There is a lot of it in the Southern Urals, in Yakutia and the Western Baikal region – the Kholodnenskoye deposit, where zinc-staurolite is found, there is even an entire Staurolite Mountain in Taimyr.
Abroad, these are the already mentioned Swiss Alps, Austria, Bavaria, France, Spain. On the African continent, in Zambia, in the Lusaka deposit, jewelry and ornamental blue cobalt-containing staurolite – lusakite – is found. Staurolite is very popular and is mined in many places in the United States, especially in the western states; it is the official symbol of the state of Georgia. There are deposits of it in Brazil, India, Afghanistan, Finland and some other countries.

Now a little about other “cross” stones.

Quite often, dovetail-type gypsum doubles look like staurolite oblique crosses. But this is just similarity.

And here is another wonderful stone, the image of a cross on which is also valued by Christians. Medieval crusader knights often inserted this stone into the end of the hilt of their swords and daggers. This is andalusite-chiastolite.

Why did such a pattern appear in the cross section of the crystal? There is also a certain “scientific trick” here that I would like to tell you about. Like staurolite, chiastolite is also formed in high-alumina shales (they are often found together), but it “loves” a higher temperature of formation and is very often found in the contact zone of high-alumina and, in addition, carbonaceous shales with some intrusion of igneous rocks embedded in their thickness – in the so-called hornfels – contact rocks. Its crystals also grow in a metasomatic way and, having a quadruple axis of symmetry, represent an irregular octagon when cut, where four faces are wide, and four more are small and, as it were, “cut off” the corners of the resulting square. It is these small faces that are responsible for the formation of such a cross in cross section. The fact is that these edges, unlike large ones, have an electrostatic potential and literally attract carbon particles from the host rocks during growth. And they include them. The crystal grows and increases in size, and the carbon particles along these edges become overgrown and overgrown into stone. That’s why such a picture is visible on the cross-section of the crystal. 🙂

And here’s another “cross”.

This is a black diopside “star of India” with an asterism effect. Asterism is when a crystal contains regular growths or cracks oriented in a certain way in relation to the main crystallographic axis. Then a three-, four- or six-rayed “star” will play on such a specially processed stone. Very beautiful! Rubies, sapphires and alexandrites also happen to be like this (the latter, however, are very rare). The number of “rays” also depends on twinning, since such crystals are precisely twins, tees and germination gears.

In fact, this list does not exhaust the number of “cross stones”, but these are perhaps the main ones.

Here, for example, is the fusion of two watermelon tourmaline crystals, but in this case, this is more an accident than a pattern.

That’s probably all there is to it

UPD: since I published this post somewhere a long time ago, I added the tag “self-repeat”.