What was a alabaster box made of?

Answer 1

Alabaster is a kind of mineral, and so an alabaster box is made of alabaster. The word "alabaster" can refer to two different minerals. One is gypsum, the same stuff as found inside of drywall sheets, and as anyone who has ever put a hole in their wall knows, gypsum is extremely soft. This means that an alabaster box will probably not be made of gypsum. The other mineral given that name is a kind of marble which is very hard, and so this is the kind of mineral we're talking about when we think of an "alabaster box." Alabaster is usually white, sometimes marked with browns or tans.

Answer 2

Per Wikipedia.org: " gypsum and calcite, a carbonate of calcium, also known as onyx-marble, Egyptian alabaster or Oriental alabaster, in geological terms is "a stalagmitic limestone marked with patterns of swirling bands of cream and brown".