PREMODERN DIAMOND MINES IN INDIA AND BORNEO AS SITES OF GEOHERITAGE

Before the early eighteenth century, virtually all of the world’s diamonds were mined from alluvial deposits in the Deccan region of the Indian subcontinent and western and southern parts of Borneo. These sites were the sources of diamonds used in foundational geological and mineralogical studies such as Nicolaus Steno’s Prodomus (1669) and Robert Boyle’s Essay on the Origins and Virtues of Gems (1672).

The most famous Deccan mine at Kollur, in the modern state of Andhra Pradesh, was largely exhausted by 1800, presumed lost, then rediscovered during by the colonial Geological Survey of India in the 1880s. A water-management project submerged the area under water in the early 2000s. In contrast, the diamond deposits of Borneo are still informally mined using artisanal methods. The Cempaka diamond fields of Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan features modest signage about the history of mining in the region.

Both regions were of deep interest to seventeenth century scientists. This presentation will demonstrate the ways that early modern scholars made use of the growing global gem trade to study precious minerals and the questions they raised about the composition of the earth. In light of these insights, this talk considers ways that sites of colonial resource extraction can also illuminate aspects of the history of the geosciences, and perhaps be incorporated into gemmological museum displays in instances where sites are no longer extant.