[Steppes] roman standards

[AlKudsi at aol.com]

I was basing my speculation on the fact that glass blowing into a mold was 
very popular with the Romans, and a lot faster than hand grinding. Although the 
story was talking about the other standard being made out of chalcedony, that 
is a relatively easy stone to grind into a sphere (and polish) because it is 
just hard enough to work (7 on the Mohs scale) but has no clevage points. That 
makes it similar to jade, another relatively hard mineral, with minimal 
clevage points to cause fracturing. Most man-created glass of the period, according 
to some sources, was a bit brittle if overworked, which you'd have to do to 
grind it, and didn't take on a polished finish easily. It was much more likely 
to be blown into a mold if you wanted it polished. It is true that if it were 
volcanic glass (obsidian), or glass formed from impact meteorites (such as 
Moldavite), it would constitute a "star stone" and probably be ground. However, it 
would probably take an expert to determine just what type of glass it was 
(i.e. man made or naturally occuring) and how the glass was worked.
 
Yes, worked glass has a much older tradition than blown glass...faience, used 
by the Egyptians since at least 1500 BC is a form of glass that is then 
ground, made into a paste with traces of copper to make it blue or blue-green and 
used as a glaze for pottery by refiring. But the oldest known BLOWN glass, 
according to most sources, is about 50 BC Phoenicia. Glass can be worked in so 
many ways, though...as a glaze, as pulled, as blown, as ground, as molded, and as 
tumbled. Even earlier use of glass was probably from naturally occuring glass 
(volcanic, mostly, although glass found at a lightning strike would be 
considered sacred) at least as far back as Neolithic times, but it wasn't 
purposefully made from the raw ingredients.
 
Sorry, new area of interest: minerals and gemstones, and by default, things 
such as opal and glass which are technically not minerals, but mineraloids 
because they do not have a regularly ordered internal structure.
 
HL Saqra
quoting some from the Smithsonian book: Rock and Gem: The Definitive Guide to 
Rocks, Minerals, Gems, and Fossils, as well as some research in my pottery 
sources.