Libyan Desert Glass
News flash! The probable source crater for Libyan Desert Glass has been discovered (March, 2006 announcement). The Kebira Crater is more than 20 times the diameter of Meteor Crater, Arizona. It was recently discovered by Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing. You can see it by going to Google Earth and flying to the following coordinates: 24°40'23.66"N, 24°57'32.03"E. The crater is located about 100 km from the center of the Libyan Desert Glass strewn field, and was blasted into Nubian Sandstone, long considered an excellent compositional match for LDG.
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Since Libyan Desert Glass is found in one of the remotest parts of Egypt, we have often been asked whether any has been found in Egyptian tombs. We finally have an answer: YES! In King Tut's tomb no less! The image of King Tut's breastplate at left shows a carved straw- yellow scarab as its centerpiece. Long assumed to be chalcedony, this has now been confirmed to be Libyan Desert Glass! |
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Before we leave the subject of cultural history, I should also mention that the Libyan Desert Glass strewn field quite frequently yields LDG artifacts. They are virtually always simple blades struck from cores by percussion. I have only seen one showing secondary pressure flaking. Such blades make effective cutting instruments, and the earliest agriculturalists sometimes lined up a row of blades in a piece of curved, slotted wood to form scythes for grain harvest. We have just acquired a small lot of fine Libyan Desert Glass blades. The small image at the left can also be clicked for a blowup (close that window when you're done to return to this page). |
UPDATED September 2-5, 2005 (and again 2/9/2012) to eliminate sold items and add heaps of new inventory. For your perspective, over a kilo of "sold" items were removed. I didn't work it out this time, but on my last update, the average selling price for those actually sold was $3.04/gm, ranging from under $1/g to over $5/g according to quality and special characteristics. Two years have passed and the area is now largely closed to entry. You do the math.
A comment regarding color: Libyan
Desert Glass appearance varies greatly with lighting conditions. In equatorial sunlight there is a slightly different
wavelength mix than at higher or lower latitudes. In its native setting, LDG has hints of neon apple green whereas
in my area (Reno, Nevada, USA), it is more of a straw yellow. Whiter colors are due to abundant bubble inclusions
(exactly like pulled taffy candy that goes from clear sugar syrup to opaque as bubbles are worked into it). The
brown to gray streaks are said to be of a composition suggesting included stony meteorite dust. Some pieces have
tiny white spherules of cristobalite that results from devitrification. Due to artifical lighting employed in many
of the photos below, there is a darker amber yellow tint than you will see in natural light. Think of pale straw yellow as a base color, with white and brown variants due to bubbles
and meteoritic dust inclusions.
A comment regarding pricing and quality: We scour the world for the very best quality pieces available. With few exceptions, the pieces we offer are unusually gemmy and free of recent chips or damage. We refuse to deal with suppliers that have not taken good care of their specimens. (Some Ebay sellers have big stuff at very low prices. It is often photographed wet so you won't see the glassy chips from a 1000 km ride in a bucket in the back of a 4WD. This is a mortal sin, not worthy of your support). We pick the best of the best, piece by piece, and pay whatever it takes to get the real winners. I average my purchase costs all out when determining price, and I can honestly tell you that some of these pieces are priced cheaper than what I paid for them individually wholesale. If you want to get an idea of my quality assessment, work out the asking price per gram. Under $3/gm is material that I am reluctant to sell at all, as it does not meet our quality standards (we only get an occasional piece of this grade by mistake----). Most top-end material falls in the $3 to $5/gm range, and a few super special pieces may push $10/gm.
In our price structure, assume that $1.50 to $2.00/gm is average "run of mine" material. If you spent a few thousand dollar to go into the Libyan desert and picked up every piece you saw, this would be the grade for maybe 80% of it. $3/gm is above average, but mostly not offered here. At $4/gm, these will be very gemmy and/or otherwise special pieces, probably in the top 5% quality range. At $4.50 to $5/gm, you are looking at specimens that I don't much care whether they sell or not. I'd be perfectly happy to keep them myself. Above $5/gm, you can bet you are looking at museum pieces. I do attach a premium to bigger pieces, so small specimens at $3/gm may represent very nice quality. It is obviously easier to preserve a small gemmy chip than a big lunker of the same quality.
Since the supply side on this material has dwindled to a trickle and recent reports indicate that expeditions into the source area are either not permitted at all or, at minimum, require that you pay for an Egyptian military escort, AND since the supply is obviously limited and finite and increasingly picked over in ANY case, really good pieces can go nowhere but up. Listed below, you will find the largest selection of QUALITY pieces available in the world today. Prices may change at any time. Those posted at the date of your firm order will be respected.
Other terminology:chatoyance, devitrification, chondrite dust, ventifact, debitage (definitions to be added soon)
On most items I will be glad to send you additional images on request.
Below is our current inventory. Click on the images to open an enlarged and more detailed version in a new window. Close that new image window when done to return to this page.
"Sold" items updated 2/07/2012. Everything so see below is available as of this date.
Additional inventory will be added soon. New cultural artifact pieces have been added at the bottom of this page.
Click on images for larger view. Close resulting new window to return to this page.
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168.0 gms of sculpted iceberg glory. My all time favorite! | I may refuse to sell this one. The only circumstance I can imagine in which I would sell is if it were to a very, very loving home! If you're the one, price doesn't matter. If you're not the one, no worries. $1500.00 (#LDG1680) |
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96.4 gms | Subtle interlayering of clear and bubble-inclusion rich layers. Beautiful piece, displays well. $385 |
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68.8 gms; half highly transparent, half milky with planar bands of tiny bubbles. |
Another flawless beaut. Nicely sculpted by the wind-blown sands of the desert.$300 (#LDG688) |
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64.6 gms. Side View of a very neat display piece! | A very nice 64.6 gm chunk that stands like an iceberg! Cheaply priced at $175. (#LDG646) |
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58.4 gms | A very pleasing piece with beautiful sculpted form and high polish. $240 |
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58.3 gms | Delicate curtains of oriented flattened bubbles give this ventifact a silky chatoyance. $225 |
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57.5 gms. Deep fluting! | This one has unusually sharp and deep parallel fluting. Very ornate. $225 |
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53.2 gms. Glorious sculpture! | Interesting moderately milky interior due to finely dispersed bubbles. Some dark chondritic dust inclusions visible. The crowning glory of this piece is its wonderful all-over pitting, ventifacting, and polish, like melted ice! $215 (#LDG532) |
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51.3 gms. Much nicer than the picture shows---- | Great overall sculpture with planar internal bubble-rich layering and deep external fluting. Good polish on all surfaces. $185 (#LDG513) |
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A big one at 49.9 gms with excellent transparency, full of cristobalite spherules! |
An exceptionally beautiful specimen with abundant small hemispheric pits. The value is compounded by the special combination of lots of obvious white cristobalite devitrification spherulites and the highly transparent matrix that allows them to be seen. A real winner! $220 (#LDG499) |
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48.1 gms. Milky, resembling paraffin wax. | I mostly select for gemmy clarity, but this one is such an unusual semi-opaque and quite uniform milky color that we had to have it. $170 |
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44.5 gms. Excellent chatoyance! | Viewed from some directions, this piece is typical straw yellow and quite transparent. But rotate it, and it becomes silky white and semi-opaque. (Think of fiber optics spheres. It's similar to that). $175 |
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44.4 gms. Very ornate sculpture | This has a flat base and a very convoluted top, with deep pits and grooves. Nice. $180 |
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44.0 gms. Ventifact | Interesting wind facets. Quite clear with curtains of white bubbles. $150 |
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37.5 gms Relatively flat | Greasy-luster, dimpled surface, lots of bubble inclusions. $110 |
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37.1 gms. Chatoyant | This one has a nice silky chatoyant flash and nice deep fluting. The bottom side that was buried in the sand is matte. $110 |
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33.1 gms. | Cloudy with relatively large bubbles, some of which are breached at the surface giving this specimen a somewhat porous skin look. $75 |
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30.6 gms. Thin, transparent, and packed with cristobalite! |
A fantastic 30.6 gm specimen selected for it's fine display of white cristobalite devitrification spherulites. The front surface is a smoothly curved, wind-polished conchoidal fracture face that provides a great window into the interior. Great display piece. $195 (#LDG306) |
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30.5 gms. | Nice complex pitting, slightly milky translucence. $90 |
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29.9 gms (#LDG0299B) Chondrite wisps! | Very transparent and polished providing a nice view of two arcuate layers with brown meteoritic dust. $150 |
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29.2 gms. | Nice smooth form. Faint small wisp of chondrite dust and a projecting white knob milky with bubbles. It looks like the milky layer was more prone to wind erosion. $75 |
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28.7 gms | Nice clarity with thin bubble curtains. $80 |
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27.3 gms Chondrite wisps | Another high transparency molar-tooth-shaped specimen with irregular spots and wisps of meteoritic dust. $80 |
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25.1 gms | Chondrite streaks. $100 From here on down descriptions will be sketchy or missing. This is a work in progress---- Patience please! |
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24.4 gms. Ornate fine pitting. | Sharp morphology and a finely dimpled skin make this an unusual specimen. $85 (#LDG244) |
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24.2 gms | $70 |
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21.0 gms Fantastic sculpture! Tricolor | This has white, brown, and straw-yellow layers and is deeply eroded to yield very unusual projections. A very, very cool piece! $135 |
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20.1 gms (C) | $75 |
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20.0 gms (A) | $75 |
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20.0 gms (B) | $80 |
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18.9 gms (A) | $70 |
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18.9 gms (B) Chondrite streaks | $95 |
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18.9 gms (C) | $80 |
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18.8 gms | $80 |
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18.3 gms | $75 |
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18.0 gms (A) | $50 |
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17.8 gms | Wispy thin chondrite veils. $83 |
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17.4 gms | $70 |
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16.4 gms (B) | $65 |
| missing image | 14.6 gms | $44 |
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13.4 gms | $45 |
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13.1 gms | $55 |
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12.7 gms (A) | $35 |
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12.6 gms | $55 |
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12.3 gms | $35 |
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11.6 gms | $40 |
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10.3 gms (A) | $35 |
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10.2 gms | Sold |
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9.7 gms | $44 |
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9.5 gms (B) | $25 |
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9.3 gms (B) | $30 |
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9.1 gms | $34 |
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8.7 gms | $35 |
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8.6 gms (A) | $30 |
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8.2 gms (B) | $35 |
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8.1 gms | $23 |
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7.9 gms (B) | $33 |
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7.7 gms (B) | $32 |
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7.5 gms (A) | Another super cristobalite/clear glass combo. Interesting form. $65 |
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7.5 gms (B) | Chatoyant. $30 |
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7.3 gms | Some chatoyance. $25 |
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7.2 gms | $25 |
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7.0 gms (B) | Remnant of quick eroding white bubble-rich layer on ledge of purer material. $28 |
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6.9 gms (A) | $26 |
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6.2 gms (A) | cultural debitage. $20 |
| To order, email us at nlehrman@nvbell.net |
Libyan Desert Glass Artifacts and Debitage
New 2012 Inventory
The earliest agricultural scythes involved a row of stone blades set in a curved stick. Many of the most recognizable
Libyan Desert Glass artifacts are simple blades struck from a core. These date to the dawn of Egyptian agriculture.
Here is a fine assortment of classic blades. Your choice, $30.00 each.
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9.5 gms. | $40 |
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6.1 gms. | $40 |
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4.3 gms. | $30 |
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3.6 gms (C) | $35 |
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2.9 gms. | $38 |
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Four little chips with abundant chondritic meteorite dust (?) layers. If you want something suitable for destructive analyses, these would be the best I have. Two left. | $10/each only 2 left |
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35.1 gms. An unusually huge blade! | $150 |
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