Sapphires Take Center Stage
The 2004 Carnegie Gem & Mineral Show

Friday, November 19 through Sunday, November 21

Sapphire is synonymous with the color blue, and you can easily picture sapphire seas. But a sapphire is beautiful even beyond the color blue, and comes in every color but red. The seventh annual Carnegie Gem & Mineral Show will focus on this gorgeous gemstone and bring together some of America’s top lapidary artists, retail vendors, and jewelers in one of the finest gem and mineral shows in the United States. There will be pieces for sale for all types of collectors, information for less experienced enthusiasts, and activities for the entire family. It’s also a great place to do some holiday shopping.

This year’s show is being presented by Bailey Banks & Biddle and PNC Advisors and will feature a “Showcase Suite” that will include—among other beautiful things—a 25.44-carat pink sapphire and “Big Blue,” a 126.43-carat blue sapphire valued at approximately $170,000. Following the show, the pink sapphire will be donated to Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Hillman Hall of Gems and Minerals.

The annual Benefit Mineral Auction will be held on Saturday, November 20, at 7 p.m. It will feature specimens from the collections of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Seaman Mineralogical Collection, the Harvard Mineralogical Museum, and Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

A Treasure’s Trove
Another highlight of the show is A Treasure’s Trove, an enchanting fairy tale that will kick off a national treasure hunt when it is published on November 15. Author Michael Stadther spent eight years writing and illustrating a dramatic story about 12 forest creatures who join forces with Zac, a handsome woodcarver, his beautiful half-elf/half-human wife, Ana, and their dog Pook, against the evil Rusful to save a dying forest and all the creatures that live there. The book has a strong environmental theme and teaches the power of friendship, loyalty, and love.
Throughout the book, Stadther has cleverly included clues leading to the book’s treasure—12 magnificent jewels created especially for the hunt with a combined value of $1 million. Each one-of-a-kind jewel is based on one of the 12 forest characters in the fairy tale. In order to claim a jewel, someone must find one of 12 18-carat gold tokens that Stadther has hidden in 12 separate locations throughout the continental United States.

“The tokens aren’t located in caves; they’re not under water, nor are they on mountaintops or on private property,” says Stadther, “Nothing has to be moved or lifted to find them. They’re all hidden in places accessible to everyone.” He also emphasizes that the clues leading to the jewels do not require special knowledge to be deciphered. “Anyone who can read can discover the exact location of each treasure—just the way one of the characters does in the story.”

The jewels range in value from several thousand dollars to $450,000, and all 12 pieces will be on display throughout the Carnegie Gem & Mineral Show. Author Michael Stadther will attend the show to sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase with a companion kit for $29.95.

The 2004 Carnegie Gem & Mineral Show is free with general museum admission and is being sponsored in part by Chu Investment Counsel Inc., The Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Marsetta Lane Staffing, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Special Gem Show Feature:
The Black Orlov Diamond
In addition to showcasing some of the finest sapphires in the world, the Carnegie Gem & Mineral Show will feature a rare and famous black diamond—the Black Orlov. According to legend, the 67.5 carat, cushion-cut diamond, also called the “Eye of Brahma” for its association with a 19th-century shrine near Pondicherry, India, was stolen by a monk, discovered later in the possession of Russian Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov, and sold several times on the market, most recently for $1.5 million. The Black Orlov is mounted in a modern diamond-and-platinum necklace and has been exhibited widely, including at the American Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Jewels and
all that Jazz!
Carnegie Museum of Natural History invites you to attend the Sapphire Blues Preview Gala for the Carnegie Gem & Mineral Show on Thursday, November 18, 7-10 p.m. Last year’s gala preview party was voted a “Top-10 Party” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, so the 2004 preview is not to be missed! The black-tie optional evening will include live jazz, fine food, drinks, dessert, and a sneak peek at the gorgeous sapphires that will be featured in the show. Tickets are $125 per person and can be purchased by calling 412.578.2479.

UPCOMING LECTURES

November 13
Early Horse Herders on the Asian Steppe
Dr. Sandra Olsen, Section of Anthropology
CMA Theater, 1 p.m. Free.
Dr. Olsen has spent over 12 years investigating some of the world’s first horse herders’ settlements. Her collaboration with Kazakh and other American archaeologists has led to exciting new information on how horses were first domesticated. Her latest findings will be shared during this presentation.

Also November 13
Nomads of the Northern Frontier: The People Behind the Bronzes
Katheryn Linduff, Professor of Anthropology and Art History,
University of Pittsburgh
Carnegie Museum of Art Theater, 1 p.m. Free.
Archaeological investigation during the past two decades in northern China reveals a textured picture of the nomadic ways of life that existed there in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The artifacts on exhibit show the artistic traditions of these myriad groups, but knowledge is now emerging of their pastoral adaptation to the steppe, their political organization, and their mixed relationships with neighboring peoples.

December 4
The Soul of Kazakhstan
Wayne Eastep, Professional Photographer
Carnegie Lecture Hall, 1 p.m. Free.
This is a land of women warrior chiefs, the place where people first domesticated horses, where the apple originated, and the start of the famous Silk Road. Photographer, adventurer, and world traveler Wayne Eastep will present his photographs and talk about the culture, history and people of Kazakhstan, an important and unique country in Central Asia. A book signing will follow the lecture.

Dine with the Dinosaurs Lecture Series
Enjoy a sumptuous dinner among the denizens of Dinosaur Hall.
Learn intriguing information about the history of the Museum of Natural History’s dinosaur collection, the exhibit hall, ongoing research, and plans for the exciting transformation of Carnegie's dinosaurs. The evening’s agenda includes cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., and a lecture at 8 p.m.

Fee: Members: $100 per event, Non-members: $125 per event. Company tables may be purchased. Call for details.
To register, call 412. 578.2479.

November 10 - Dr. Zhexi Luo, Curator
Dr. Luo was part of the international team of scientists who discovered Sinodelphys szalayi, the most primitive and oldest known relative of all marsupial mammals that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.

December 2 - Dr. David Berman, Curator
Dr. Berman has searched the American Southwest and Germany for evidence that Earth's landmasses were once joined as a single continent, culminating in the discovery of similar fossils and geologic material on continents that, today, are oceans apart.

A New Book
The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey
Chris Beard unearths the origins of monkeys, apes, and humans.

"This could be the ultimate book on our origins. For the first time, Chris Beard sheds light on a hitherto little-known yet highly controversial area of paleontology—the search for the ancestry of monkeys, apes, and, ultimately, humans," says Henry Gee, author of In Search of Deep Time.

Beard’s new book, The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey, is scheduled for publication by the University of California Press in December 2004. He is the Museum of Natural History’s curator and head of the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, and a past winner of a MacArthur "genius" grant. In this book, he is joined by his colleague, Museum Illustrator Mark Klingler, in revealing “the dawn of recent life.”

The search for primate fossils takes readers back roughly 45 million years into the Eocene Period, where they discover a tantalizing new perspective on man’s deepest evolutionary roots. In a fast-paced narrative full of vivid stories from the field, Beard reconstructs man’s extended family tree, showing that the first anthropoids—the diverse and successful group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans—evolved millions of years earlier than was previously suspected and emerged in Asia rather than Africa.

Part of the story is the saga of two centuries of scientific exploration in search of anthropoid origins, from the early work of Georges Cuvier, the father of paleontology, to the latest discoveries in Asia, Africa, and North America's Rocky Mountains. Against this historical backdrop, Beard weaves the story of how his own expeditions have unearthed crucial fossils—including the controversial primate Eosimias—that support his compelling new vision of anthropoid evolution.

In the only book written for a wide audience that explores this remote phase of humankind’s evolutionary history, The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey adds a fascinating new chapter to man’s understanding of humanity's relationship to the rest of life on earth.

A Lecture and Book-signing by Author Chris Beard
Tuesday, November 9, 7 p.m.
Chris Beard discusses his research for the Hunt for the Dawn Monkey in a free lecture in the Carnegie Museum of Art Theater. After the lecture there will be a book signing.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands
from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation
Through January 2, 2005

The exhibition Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation brings to life the complex cultures that flourished across the Asian grasslands from northern China and Mongolia into Eastern Europe. It shows through bronze artwork how these people influenced and were influenced by the culture of dynastic China, and it illustrates the important role of the steppe dwellers in facilitating trade and travel along the Silk Route across Asia.

Fabulous Sale of Alaskan Native Arts
Through centuries of subsistence living, the indigenous peoples of Alaska have sustained an astoundingly diverse creative heritage. Please join the Alaska Native Arts Foundation at Carnegie Museum of Natural History for a rare opportunity to view and learn about the arts of Alaska’s first peoples. On December 11 and 12, there will be sculptures, carvings, containers, jewelry, and more on display and for sale on the Third Floor Balcony and in Polar World: Wyckoff Hall of Polar Life.

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