dZi Stone or fossil come from the central Asian region, and are usually found in an area ranging from Afghanistan, Iran, Tibet, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma and Thailand. They come in many shapes, sizes and forms, from tiny etched carnelians to large multi eyed and striped dZi.
This above photos in this collection are wood Fossil beads that I have personally collected in that part of Asia ,the old is from 17 th century
When I first started collecting dZi, you could only find genuine, original beads, 1000's of years old, or obvious copies and fakes not even made from agate, but usually bone or glass, and often quite old in themselves, but there was no mistaking the real from the copy. In recent times however the market has been inundated by so-called "middle period" or "antique" 100, 200 or 500 year old dZi which the sellers are claiming to be genuine. This is simply not true. I will state categorically here and now for the record as far as Tibetan dZi is concerned: "There Is No Middle Period!" If there had been, then these beads would have been around in the 70's and 80's when I was there, but they only started appearing in the 90's when the fakes started appearing on the market, and I think that it is no coincidence. No Tibetan I have spoken to had ever heard of these so-called middle period beads before the 90's, so I think you can safely say they are just modern fakes being sold with a lie to increase profits.