Anhydrite (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

The Salt mine at Hallstatt is the oldest salt mine from the ancient world and is one of the World Heritage Sites in Austria. Some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the Celts was found in Hallstatt dating back to 800-450 BC. This is the only piece of Anhydrite that we've seen from this historic locality featuring bladed beige-orange color crystals measuring up to 1.4 cm on matrix. It's not the world's finest Anhydrite, but it's an important specimen from one of the most significant mines (albeit a salt mine) that dates back thousands of years. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#12094). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record).