Mackenzie M. and Nancy F. Ask: "What are some of your staff and docents’ favorite items in your collections? Why do they like them and what stories do they tell?"
You can find my favorite object in the People of the Southwest exhibition, 2nd floor, displayed in the panel called Symbolic Images. The text reads:
1300 – 1540 ce
The population expansion that took place in the Rio Grande Valley is associated with complex symbolic expressions in pottery, rock art and wall paintings. Images in rock art are primarily dated by similarity in design since they cannot be dated directly among the most common images are four pointed stars, parrots, snakes, and human figures.
The Selenite Star is not your typical “rock art,” as the image describes. The name 'selenite' is mostly synonymous with gypsum but has been used historically to describe the transparent variety of that mineral. Selenite has been found throughout New Mexico – it may be that the Selenite Star is from the Rio Puerco Valley. Selenite is a sulfate, its’ luster is vitreous, with a monoclinic structure. https://www.britannica.com/science/monoclinic-system
Selenite crystals are diamond shape, and the star was most likely worked into its current four pointed profile with a drilled center, which wouldn’t have required excessive force as it is a soft stone – 2 on Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Selenite is from the Greek σελήυη, for "moon," in allusion to the moon-like white reflections of the mineral or to the quality of the light transmitted by semi-pellucid gypsum slabs of cleavages used as windows.
I like this object as it reminds me of the stars in the heavens that shine brightly through dark nights.
Learn more about Selenite in New Mexico: La Mesita Negra, Rio Puerco Valley, Bernalillo Co., New Mexico, USA.
Selenite Star
New Mexico
69.19.2
Gift of Fred Pettit
Post by Mary Beth Hermans
Dedicated to Marilyn Found
