What was the trading route for emeralds?

Question

In the 1500s, what was the trading route for emeralds? (Columbia had them at the time)

Answer 1

The Yellow Brick Road.

Answer 2

New research by French scientists, including a team from the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD), has produced fresh evidence about early emerald trade routes. The origin of many `old mine' emeralds, held in museums and private collections worldwide, is poorly understood and often based on conjecture rather than proof. The latest research, however, reveals that some of the stones, many traded by Indian merchants between the 16th and 18th centuries, came from mines which were previously assumed to be 20th-century discoveries.


It is widely believed that Egyptian pharaohs began emerald trading after exploiting the Cleopatra mines. Later, emeralds were taken from mines in Austria, but no other sites were known until 1545, when the Spaniards exploited Colombia. However an analysis of the emeralds in a Gallo-Roman earring has revealed another source of emeralds during antiquity. It's oxygen ratio concurs with only one emerald mine site in the world: Pakistan.

Three emeralds (cut in the 18th century) from the treasure of the Nizam of Hyderabab in India previously thought to have come from lost mines in southeast Asia were revealed by isotope analysis to have been sourced in Columbia. This also indicates how quickly and how far afield emeralds were traded after the discovery of the Columbia mines.

Another emerald from the same treasure suggests that it may have come from Afghanistan. It may be that these same mines, supposedly mapped for only the first time in 1976, had actually been exploited at least as early as the 18th century.

Answer 3

The trading route for all gemstone was around the Mediterranean to the hold lands. Emeralds were usually used in barter. The Templar Knights used these for coinage. The "Silk Road" "Marco Polo" etc.