Should researchers try to understand how ancient star drill holes were created in stone and continue to ignore ultrasonic technology as a possibility, I have a movie quote to share. “Try looking into that place you dare not look. You’ll find me there staring back at you.” (Dune 1984)
ULTRA- is defined as going beyond what is usual or ordinary; excessive; extreme.
Light travels 186,000 miles per second and when it enters an object it slows down and bends. The bending of light is called refraction. A straw in water appears bent due to refraction.
When light enters a faceted gemstone, it slightly bends, internally reflects, and then refracts back out of the stone into its spectral hues or colors called dispersion (fire). Light reflected off the surface facets of the gem is called scintillation (sparkle). The combination of dispersion and scintillation is called brilliance.
Lapis Lazuli (lapis) is a rock made up of lazurite, calcite, and pyrite. The pigment extracted from lapis is called Ultramarine and was used in ancient times as facial makeup and paint pigment. The lapis pendant shown (below left) is set with CZ (synthetic cubic zirconia) gemstones.
Bending light at a high degree enables invisibility. As a demonstration, I placed a lapis and CZ jewelry item upside down and positioned the CZ gem over a black line made on paper. The black line is visible looking through the backside of the CZ, however, a diamond bends light at a higher degree and the black line will become invisible.
A round brilliant cut diamond is placed upside down over the black line. The black line disappears and becomes invisible due to the diamonds ability to bend light at a high degree (2.417) compared to a CZ (2.15). This technique works only on round brilliant cut diamonds under 1/2 carat.
Diamond, CZ, and ulexite (tv rock) are singly refractive stones.
Double refractive crystals such as calcite, quartz, benitoite, and spodumene will split light causing an image to appear split-in-half or doubled when looking through.
All gemstones and crystals bend light at different degrees. Measuring the ability of light to bend within a stone is called its refractive index (RI).
To obtain the refractive index of a stone, place it on the calcite hemicylinder of the refractometer and read the results.
The refractometer reads: 1.66 (low reading) and 1.672 (high reading). Spodumene has this RI range. The light green variety of this spodumene is called hiddenite. The pink variety is called Kunzite, named after the father of gemology, George frederick kunz.
Ultraviolet (UV) light is of high frequency wavelengths that we cannot see. Exposing minerals to ultraviolet light (radiation) can excite the atoms, creating friction and heat, thus causing light in the crystal.
Hiddenite, spodumene will fluoresce an orange yellow color under long wave UV light and weak to no fluorescence under shortwave UV. Below are examples of shortwave fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals, calcite and willemite.
Below is an ultra designed ring with beautiful bright gemstone colors against a dull rock background. When subjected to shortwave UV light the background comes alive while the ring is less visible.
At first glance its difficult to see the star hole and benitoite gemstones pictured under white light. Under shortwave UV the star hole is realized with visual color and the 2 benitoites are fluorescing a strong bright blue.
Understanding the minerals within a rock used in ancient construction sites will better help in understanding their possible function.
Below Tufa rock looks ordinary in visible light and uniquely different under ultraviolet. The fluorescent orange rind indicates calcite and the green glowing plumes inside are aragonite. Uranium is the trace element responsible for the green fluorescence in aragonite.
Calcite and aragonite in the above inorganic calcium carbonate tufa rock are also the key minerals that make up the organic nacre layers of a pearl (calcite, aragonite, and conchiolin)
Below are ultrasonically drilled freshwater cultured pearls. The cause of yellow color in the top pearl is yellow dye and the bottom pearl exhibiting a diamond shape is caused by a diamond shaped shell nucleus implanted inside the oyster. The oyster secretes layers of nacre (calcite and aragonite) over the carved shell, producing the diamond shape pearl. The shape of the implanted shell nucleus dictates the shape of the pearl grown. Ultrasonic drill holes in the below pearls are clean.
After ultrasonically drilling the spodumene crystal (below), I placed it in an ultrasonic cleaner where high frequency sound waves are emitted into a solution and millions of bubbles are formed under pressure. Instead of the bubbles exploding, they implode or cave-in on themselves (cavitation).
The inward force of each collapsing bubble is 10 times hotter than the surface of the sun and creates a shockwave shooting outward from its center point. The tiny implosions agitate the liquid and remove unwanted debris in hard to reach areas of any object.
A yellow CZ gem is placed in the center hole and cemented to the crystal using ultraviolet curing super glue (cyanoacrylate).
In lapidary, spodumene is said to be difficult or sometimes impossible to work due to the sensitive nature of 2 cleavage planes at 90 degrees. I ultrasonically drilled 4 holes all running perpendicular to the c-axis (crystals length). No chipping or cleaving of the stone was evident as I drilled a precision triangle hole, ½ millimeter away from the stones edge. The gems are strung to make an ultra design necklace.
The shape of a shell nucleus dictates the shape of the pearl creation.
The shape of drilling tool dictates the shape of the hole made.
The shape of the hole dictates the shape of the tool used.
Ultra designing is creating unique possibilities out of what is considered impossible.
