Analcime

specimen number:
1052782

location:
Duingen clay pit, Leinebergland, Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany

description:
Fine old German classic with glassy sparkling translucent crystals of analcime measuring to 0.5 cm in size rich across the top of matrix. In very good condition. The specimen comes with an antique label that dates this to 1928.

The Duingen clay pit complex, situated near Alfeld in the Hildesheim district of Lower Saxony, Germany, is a historic ceramic raw material locality developed within the Weser Hills region. Geologically, the deposit consists of thick, high-quality, dark gray to black plastic clay layers belonging to the Lower Cretaceous Wealden facies, which filled local limnic-paralic basin structures. This clay-rich sedimentary sequence is notable mineralogically because localized Tertiary basaltic intrusions and accompanying hydrothermal activity created unique thermal alteration zones, allowing for the formation of localized mineral pockets containing exceptional zeolite crystals such as analcime. Human exploitation of the Duingen clays dates back to prehistoric times and supported a thriving regional stoneware and pottery industry starting in the medieval period, but systematic, industrial-scale quarrying operations truly peaked between the mid-nineteenth century and the late twentieth century. Commercial extraction gradually shifted as traditional stoneware production declined, with active mining operations at the primary historic pits drawing to a close by the late 1970s and 1980s.

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