One of the more outlandish looking minerals due to the warping bands of deeply saturated green color, Malachite was an essential component in early human life. Malachite is believed to be the earliest ore of Copper used by humans and was mined in the Sinai and eastern deserts of Egypt approximately 5,000 years ago. It was also used for aesthetic purposes as well, and crushed Malachite was repurposed as eye paint, wall paint, glazes, and in the coloring of glass. Once larger deposits of workable Copper ore was found, Malachite was primarily used for ornamental and spiritual purposes.

Malachite is one of the oldest known green pigments to be used in paintings. It can easily be ground into a soft powder due to its low Mohs score, mixes easily with water or oil, and retains its color when exposed to light overtime. The pigment is known as Olympian green. This green pigment is found in the paintings of Egyptian tombs and in paintings produced throughout Europe during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. The use of Malachite as a pigment declined significantly during the 17^th century when alternative green colors were developed.

Chrysocolla has been found as a pigment in wall paintings at Kizil in Turkistan and in Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian tombs. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was used as a watercolor pigment called Cedar green. Theophrastus and Pliny wrote of the mineral Chrysocolla, although there is always the possibility that they confused it with other copper minerals, such as malachite; it is not always clear which mineral is being referred to in most of the ancient texts.

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11 inches long, 6.5 inches wide, 5 inches tall

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