Luxurious Specimens

Blog · Timeline stage essay

How the Theory Began

ASA Digital Art’s own account of how its specimens led to the ideas on these pages.

Editorial study. This essay describes no lot offered for sale. Carbonado’s origin is unresolved and debated. ASA Digital Art’s specimens are not identified as carbonado; no origin, space or otherwise, is claimed for any ASA Digital Art specimen or Luxurious Specimens lot.

ASA Digital Art’s account. We first took the pieces for a fossil or a petrified organism; Florida’s limestone is rich in fossils[1,2]. Through our own research and analysis, we moved toward the diamond and plasma-channel ideas described in earlier essays.

The specimens were found in Florida alongside honey calcite; rusty pieces resembling Northwest Africa (NWA) meteorite fragments, which are not identified as meteorites and are not claimed to be; and fossils, including what appears to be a megalodon tooth. Fossil calcite crystals in Florida shells are documented by the University of Florida[3], and megalodon teeth occur in Florida[4].

Over the past decade, ASA Digital Art has also donated some specimens to individuals for safekeeping and to encourage further study in the research community.

ASA Digital Art’s specimens are not identified as carbonado. No origin, space or otherwise, is claimed for any ASA Digital Art specimen or Luxurious Specimens lot. Specimens are under study and not lab-confirmed.

← Back to this stage on the carbonado timeline

References

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, State Geologic Map Compilation: Miami Limestone (FLPSm;0), unit description. https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/sgmc-unit.php?unit=FLPSm%3B0
  2. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida Invertebrate Paleontology collection description (via GBIF). https://doi.org/10.15468/nx4xlz
  3. University of Florida IFAS Shellfish Aquaculture Extension, “Biology of Bivalve Molluscs” (presentation; photo caption of fossil Mercenaria permagna with calcite crystals). https://shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/Biology-of-Bivalve-Molluscs_updated.pdf
  4. Florida Museum of Natural History, “Five Facts: Megalodon.” https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover/story/five-facts-megalodon/