What is the history of birthstones?
By Jerry Burnell Nov 1, 2004, 14:36 QUESTION: What is the history of birthstones? ANSWER: The history of birthstones goes back over 2000 years. One of the earliest recorded references came in the description of Aaron’s breastplate in the Bible and many other texts. The tribes of Israel each had a stone, which the tribe identified with. And if you wore one of these stones people knew that you were from a particular tribe. For instance the Eliat stone represented a tribe from what is now southern Israel. There is even a region that is called Eliat and, yes that is where these stones were and are mined today. In Aaron’s time the twelve tribes were united and on Aarons breastplate (or armor) he wore a stone symbolizing each tribe. It signified that he not only represented, but also had the backing of all the twelve tribes. With twelve months in the year there was a translation over time to let each stone also represent a month, and if you wore that stone it signified that you were born in
