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Investigating jet and jet-like artefacts from prehistoric Scotland: the National Museums of Scotland project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Alison Sheridan ,
Mary Davis ,
Iain Clark  and
Hal Redvers-Jones
Alison Sheridan
Affiliation:
National Museums of Scotland (NMS), Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, Scotland
Mary Davis
Affiliation:
National Museums & Galleries of Wales (NMGW), Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, Wales
Iain Clark
Affiliation:
13 Park Lane, Aberdour, Fife KY3 0TN, Scotland
Hal Redvers-Jones
Affiliation:
Victorian Jet Works, 123B Church Street, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO22 4DE, England
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Extract

Introduction

The black spacer plate necklaces and bracelets of the Early Bronze Age (Figure 1) are among the most technically accomplished prestige items of this period in Britain and Ireland. There has been much debate over the years as to whether these artefacts and other prehistoric black jewellery and dress accessories are the product of specialist jetworkers based around Whitby in North Yorkshire — Britain’s only significant source of jet. As early as 1916, for example, Callander was arguing that the Scottish finds had been made using locally available materials — cannel coal, shale and lignite — rather than Whitby jet. There has also been much confusion over the identification of these various materials. Flirthermore, the conservation of newly discovered jet and jet-like artefacts can be problematical, and the correct identification of raw material is important in determining the best method of treatment.

Type
Special section: Scotland 2002
Information
Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 293 , September 2002 , pp. 812 - 825
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2002

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