Onyx is the parallel-banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands; agate has curved bands while onyx has parallel bands. The colors of its bands range from black to almost every color. Specimens of onyx commonly contain bands of black and/or white. Onyx, as a descriptive term, has also been applied to parallel-banded varieties of alabaster, marble, calcite, obsidian, and opal, and misleadingly to materials with contorted banding, such as "cave onyx" and "Mexican onyx".
Onyx
Cabochons of red onyx, also called sardonyx
Black onyx with white streaks
The Gemma Augustea is a Roman cameo produced 9–12 AD and carved in a two-layered onyx gem (19 × 23 cm)
Alabaster is a mineral and a soft rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions and usages for the word alabaster. In archaeology, the term alabaster is a category of objects and artefacts made from the varieties of two different minerals: (i) the fine-grained, massive type of gypsum, and (ii) the fine-grained, banded type of calcite.
Calcite alabaster: The tomb of Tutankhamun (d. 1323 BC) contained a practical objet d’art, a cosmetics jar made of Egyptian alabaster, which features a lid surmounted by a lioness (goddess Bast).
Alabaster artefact: A composite bust of the Emperor Septimius Severus; the head is marble and the bust is alabaster.
Alabaster windows in the Church of Santa Maria la Mayor of Morella, Spain (built 13th-16th centuries)
Alabaster workshop in Volterra, Italy