The name chlorite derives from the Greek word
chloros, which translates as "green", being that a
reference to the mineral's colour.
Chlorite is so soft a mineral that one may scratch
it by a finger nail and powder generated by such
scratching comes out green. It has a soft oily
feeling upon touching.
Chlorite is a mineral with a low potential for
industrial use. It does not have any prominent
physical properties that would make it suited for
a particular usage nor does it contain any
constituents that make it a target of mining.
When found, chlorite is usually intimately
intermixed with other minerals, thus the cost of
separation would be rather high. As a result,
chlorite nowadays is not mined nor processed for
any specific use.
The slightly curved and handled rectangular item
has been carved from a single piece. Such
objects are assumed to have been weights and
are very often described erroneously as "locks"
and ironically called in jest "handbag" or "purse.
The scenes depicted and the decorative motifs
used relate these objects to an iconography
corresponding to artefacts excavated in
Southeastern and Central Iran, Syria,
Mesopotamia and the Island of Tarut in the Gulf.
The most plausible hypothesis is that they were
attributes of status, carried as an indication that
the bearer was a person of high importance and
office.
- (PF.6179)
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