The Meaning of Agate

The History Behind The Meaning Of Agate

From Europe to Asia, archaeological sites dating as far back as 4000 years ago to the 2nd millennium B.C.E., have revealed beautiful cut Agate as gems and jewelry. And examining the bands of hypnotic beauty that define Agate, it’s easy to understand why civilizations have been mesmerized by this gem.

The peoples of these ancient civilizations believed the banded beauty of Agate gemstones to possess magical properties; some even thought the wearer of gemstones would be able to disappear at will.

Agate gemstones were highly prized in early Egyptian culture who would adorn themselves in Agate amulets. The Romans took the art of gemstones to the next level in the form of Agate Intaglios. An Intaglio jewellery is when a gemstones is carved into, forming an inverted relief image, these were then often mounted and made Agate brooches, Agate pendants and Agate rings.

In written documentation, Agate is first referenced in the Old Testament’s tale of ‘Exodus,’ and the deliverance of the 12 Israelite tribes out of Pharaoh Amun-Hotep II’s Egypt. The story dating from 1444 B.C.E., recounts that the high priest Aaron whom was leading the exodus, was commanded by God to craft a breastplate containing 12 gems. Aaron was told that each of the breastplate’s gems represented one of the 12 Israelite tribes he was to lead. Agate, the eighth of these gems, stood for the Israelite tribe of ‘Naftali.’

However, as was the tradition the story of Exodus was recounted verbally and only appeared in written form around the 6th Century B.C.E.: 2600 years ago. In its first edition, the book of Exodus was written in the Aramaic language, and the Aramaic for ‘Agate’ was ‘Shebo’.

Three hundred years later in 300 B.C.E., Ptolemy I the favoured general of Alexander the Great, became the first Greek ruler of Egypt. Of his may deeds, Ptolemy I founded the Library of Alexandria and commissioned the ‘Septuagint’ Rabbis to translate the Aramaic Hebrew Bible into Greek. Therefore the Aramaic ‘Shebo’ became the Greek ‘Akhates.’

According to the ancient naturalist Theophrastus the legend of how the banded gemstone became known as ‘Akhates’ in Greek was due to the fact it was found in abundance in the Sicilian river of the same name the Akhates. Pliny the Elder, a later Roman naturalist corroborates this in the first Century A.D.E., but writes it as the Latin ‘Achates.’ And as Latin was a parent to most European languages, by the 1500’s it had evolved into the French language as ‘Agathe.’

Moving forward to in 1611 A.D.E., some two thousand years later, King James 1 of England had Ptolemy’s Greek version of the Bible translated into English. And so after nearly three and a half thousand years, this extraordinary gemstone, became the English ‘Agate.’

Agate Jewelry