"Pearls are unique among gemstones. Complete as they are found, they require no faceting or shaping to bring out their beauty and luster. Perhaps because of their origin and radiance, pearls have fascinated people from the time they were first found in artifacts in Mesopotamia (c. 2300 B.C.E.), until the present. Rich with new color photography and archival images, Pearls: A Natural History chronicles this enduring obsession. Based on an exhibition mounted by the American Museum of Natural History in New York and The Field Museum in Chicago, Pearls combines science, history, and beautiful objects both natural and crafted. The authors draw on their varied disciplines to explore all aspects of pearls - biology, gemology, anthropology, mineralogy, ecology, and the decorative arts."--Jacket.