Lapis

Lapis lazuli:

Lapis has been worn for thousands of years as adornments, eye shadow, used in elixirs and as an intense blue in paintings. Early humans valued Lapis lazuli more highly than gold for its intense blue color, Egyptians buried a lapis scarab with the dead and believed it offered the living protection. in medieval Europe, Lapis Lazuli, resembling the blue of the heavens, was believed to counteract the wiles of the spirits of darkness and procure the aid and favor of the spirits of light and wisdom.
The oldest Lapis mine is from 700 BC, in a region that was part of a country known as Bactria (now Afghanistan). The lapis mines that were producing then are still producing today.