Picrolite
Picrolite is a soft, pale green/blue-green to olive green coloured metamorphic stone. It is essentially a serpentine polymorph, the product of hydrothermal alteration (serpentinization) of ultrabasic rocks. The material consists of the serpentine minerals lizardite (main constituent), chrysotile (minor constituent) and possibly antigorite or any combination of these. Outcrops of the material are located in various serpentine bodies of southwest Cyprus but only the Troodos Mountain Range ones (primary source - seams) produced material of a workable quality. An intensive field survey of all the rivers that drain the Troodos Massif and pass through the main serpentinite outcrops elsewhere on the island conducted by Xenophontos in 1991 demonstrated that the Kouris and Karyotis Rivers are the only verified picrolite carriers (secondary sources - pebbles). Based on the presence of waterworn pebbles in archaeological sites it is often suggested that the raw material acquisition was done from those rivers rather than from in situ seams on the Troodos, which would have required laborious quarrying and a difficult approach at 19512 m elevation.
Picrolite is a soft, pale green/blue-green to olive green coloured metamorphic stone. It is essentially a serpentine polymorph, the product of hydrothermal alteration (serpentinization) of ultrabasic rocks. The material consists of the serpentine minerals lizardite (main constituent), chrysotile (minor constituent) and possibly antigorite or any combination of these. Outcrops of the material are located in various serpentine bodies of southwest Cyprus but only the Troodos Mountain Range ones (primary source - seams) produced material of a workable quality. An intensive field survey of all the rivers that drain the Troodos Massif and pass through the main serpentinite outcrops elsewhere on the island conducted by Xenophontos in 1991 demonstrated that the Kouris and Karyotis Rivers are the only verified picrolite carriers (secondary sources - pebbles). Based on the presence of waterworn pebbles in archaeological sites it is often suggested that the raw material acquisition was done from those rivers rather than from in situ seams on the Troodos, which would have required laborious quarrying and a difficult approach at 19512 m elevation.
Carnelian
Carnelian (sometimes referred to as cornelian) is a hard, volcanic stone, a type of microcrystalline quartz that is generally red-orange (ranging from yellow-orange to red, red-orange or brown-red) in colour due to the presence if oxidized iron. The precise location of carnelian sources in Anatolia, the Near East and surrounding regions are still a matter of research but based on bibliographic evidence good quality geological sources exist in Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia (Cappadocia), Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates and the Caucasus. Possible sources are also mentioned by Pliny at Assos (modern Behramkale) and Paros island in the southern Aegean. The world's biggest carnelian source is located in Gujarat, in the Indus Valley, as well as further east in Thailand and Cambodia. Apart from extracting it from mines, carnelian is also collected from secondary alluvial deposits washed downhill from the mountainous sources into river valleys and found in the form of pebbles in river beds, as evidenced in, for example, Ratampur basin in Indus valley.
Obsidian
Obsidian, with its highly lustrous and homogeneous texture, is the most typical of the naturally occurring volcanic glasses (igneous family of rocks). It forms when lavas with high silica content come to contact with a water sources resulting in extremely rapid cooling and excellent conchoidal fracture abilities, ideal for tool-making. It is normally translucent, although opaque varieties also exist. It is predominantly of black or smoky colour, caused by the presence of magnetite, but other colour varieties, such as mahogany, green and even (rarely) white, as well as varieties with inclusions, are also found. Obsidian sources are a rare geological feature throughout the world with examples limited along rhyolitic volcanic areas, such as the Great Rift Valley (East Africa), Japan, Central America and the Italian islands. Closer to Cyprus, obsidian sources occur in the Aegean, Anatolia and the Caucasus.
