Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/486

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PERSONAL ORNAMENTS, AMULETS, ETC.
[CHAP. XXI.

engrave it. It lay in company with a globular and a barrel-shaped bead in an urn containing burnt bones. In character this ornament recalls to mind the bronze pendants of which so many occurred in the cemetery at Halstatt, though this is of far simpler design.


Fig. 381.—Hungry Bentley. 1/1


Fig. 381a.—Heathery Burn Cave. 1/2

Armlets manufactured from a single piece of jet are not uncommon among Roman antiquities. They seem, however, also to have been made in this country in pre-Roman times. Portions of jet or lignite armlets of almost semicircular section, and "evidently turned on the lathe," were found with numerous bronze and bone relics in the Heathery Burn Cave,[1] Stanhope, Durham. One of these, by permission of the Society of Antiquaries, is shown as Fig. 381a. Another bracelet of jet was found at Glenluce,[2] Wigtownshire, together with several fragments. In the cromlech of La Roche qui sonne.[3] Guernsey, Mr. F. C. Lukis discovered a remarkable oval armlet of jet ornamented on its outer surface, and with countersunk perforations in several places. With it was found a bronze armlet of whitish colour. By the kindness of the Council of the British Archæological Association, figures of both, on the scale of 1/3, are here reproduced. With them were found pottery and stone instruments, mullers and mills of granite. Armlets of bone[4] or ivory also accompany ancient burials, but hardly come within my province.

Fig. 382.—Jet.—Guernsey. 1/3 Fig. 383.—Bronze.—Guernsey. 1/3
The use of jet for personal ornaments in pre-Roman times in Britain is quite in accordance with what might be gathered from the testimony of early historians. Solinus (circ. A.D. 80) mentions the abundance in this country of jet, which, he relates, burns in water and is extinguished by oil, and which, if excited by friction, becomes electric like amber. His statements are repeated by other authors. The occurrence of amber on our coasts does not appear to have been observed in
  1. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. ii. p. 131. Arch., vol. liv. p. 106.
  2. Proc. S. A. S., vol. xv. p. 268.
  3. Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. iii. p. 344. Arch., vol. xxxv. p. 247.
  4. Hoare, "South Wilts," p. 124.