Up for sale is this marvelous vintage Zuni silver ring having an inlay sunface of turquoise, coral, jet and mother of pearl surrounded by exquisite petit point Cerrillos turquoise teardrops with a scalloped silver border and a handcarved solid silver band! The ring face measures around 22mm x22mm The ring size is around 3.5 no marks but tested as Sterling silver. Sturdy 6.2 grams. Great addition to your collection The Zuni people are one of the 19 Pueblo tribes in the southwestern United States, primarily residing in New Mexico. They have a long and distinguished history of artistry, with expertise in pottery, silversmithing, and carving. A Petit Point stone is a tiny round, oval, rectangle, pear or square shaped stone hand cut by a Zuni Indian Lapidarist. Cerrillos is not only an uncommon and unique form of native New Mexican turquoise, but has a history entwined with both ancient Native peoples of the Southwest and more recent American mining companies. Cerrillos turquoise was created and mined under unusual circumstances. It is the only turquoise that formed at the base of a volcano. Thus, a variety of colors developed from the minerals in the various volcanic host stones. In fact, the Cerrillos New Mexico Turquoise mines produce seventy-five colors, from tan to khaki-green to rich, blue-green to bright and light colors. Cerrillos is a very hard stone and so takes a brilliant polish. In addition to producing a distinctive stone, the Cerrillos mine is the oldest mine of any kind in North America. Located ten miles south of Santa Fe, it was the site of the largest prehistoric mining activity on the continent because the huge turquoise deposit was partially exposed at the surface. Miners from the San Marcos Pueblo, who later moved to Santo Domingo Pueblo south of Santa Fe, most heavily worked the mine. Using only stone axes, mauls, antler picks, and chisels, Pueblo miners removed 100,000 tons of solid rock to create a pit mine 200 feet deep. They dug other vertical shafts into the ground to reach veins of turquoise. Miners carried tools and leather rock buckets on their backs as they climbed in and out of the shafts using notched logs as ladders. The turquoise obtained from this hard work traded among early people from Mexico to the Midwest and from the east to west coasts. In New Mexico, many pieces of Cerrillos turquoise for personal and trade use have been unearthed in the prehistoric ruins of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. The Pueblo people continued to extract turquoise from the Cerrillos mine until the 1870’s when a silver mining boom raised interest in the area.