Page 35 - BSAM 2017 Q1

Bernard of Clairvaux, a famous 12th century Cistercian monk, wrote, “You will find more laboring in the woods than you ever will among books. Woods and stones will teach you what you can never hear from
any master.” Bernard’s statement is certainly true of fossilized wood which through the ages has formed into striking and artful stones.
It is time to discover what Chinese collectors discovered in China centuries ago, fossilized wood can create amazing viewing stones. Fossilized wood is a broad term preferred by many scientist and geologist. A fossil is any evidence of life that has been preserved in rock. Petri ed wood is a fossil organism that has been subjected to mineral replacement. For the purposes of this article we will focus on stones with mineral replacement commonly known as petri ed wood. e word “petri ed” comes from the Greek root word petra meaning “rock” or “stone.” So, petri ed wood is literally “wood turned into a rock.” Petri ed wood has long intrigued people. While some
Top; Figure 1: This photograph shows a piece of petri ed wood with both white of opal and brown and red of agate as a part of the silica replacement process.
Bottom; Figure 2: This single peaked mountain stone has canyons, lakes and a cave. The stone measures 35 x 18 x 16 cm. and is displayed in a Maruzen suiban.
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