Alabaster has been used for thousands of years to produce a wide range of products. The ancient Egyptians used it to make canopic jars and various other sacred objects. In 1817 a sarcophagus carved from a solid block of Alabaster was discovered in the tomb of Seti 1st near Thebes.

 

Alabaster is an easy to carve soft translucent material and has been used for thousands of years in the manufacture of purfume jars, vases, fruit and ornamental bowls, religious figures and ornamental carvings.

 

When cut in thin sheets, alabaster is translucent enough to be used for small windows, and has been used for just that in many medieval churches, especially in Italy. Large alabaster sheets are used extensively in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (dedicated 2002) of the Los Angeles (California) Archdiocese. 

 

Calcite alabaster is either a stalagmitic deposit, from the floor and walls of limestone caverns, or a kind of travertine, similarly deposited in springs of calcareous water. Its deposition in successive layers gives rise to the banded appearance that the marble often shows on cross-section, whence it is known as onyx-marble or alabaster-onyx, or sometimes simply as onyx — a term which should, however, be restricted to siliceous minerals.

 

The purest alabaster is a snow-white material of fine tiniforni grain. However it is often associated with an oxide of iron, which produces brown clouding and veining in the stone. This gives it the marbling effect so characteristic of the material and leads to an almost infinite variety in the colour and patterning of the mineral.