ANCIENT
CARNELIAN BEADS
Etymological thoughts
The name
carnelian
most probably
comes from the Latin word Carne, which means flesh.
The bead above hints at why the ancient Romans chose
this word to describe the color of this semi-precious
stone from the cryptocrystalline agate family.
Carnelian has been appreciated as a valuable gem-stone
since neolithic times.
In the bronze age, we find carnelian ornaments and beads
from the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Later
Persians, Greeks and Romans used the stone, especially
for making seal engravings. Later in the medieval
period, the mystic Hildegard von Bingen lauded the stone
for its healing properties. She claimed the name
carnelian to be derived from cornel cherries due to the
color similarity. I beg to differ with Hildegard and
others who advocate for the cherry connection. They are,
of course, right within their own local traditions, but
to saddle a stone that has been
globally valued since neolithic times with a cornel cherry-derived name is, in my view, almost
funny.
In the Egyptian Book of
Dead, red symbolized blood and, therefore, life and
energy.
The Isis girdle/knot-amulet, named Tet (Tyet),
was made of carnelian and addressed by the words: Oh
blood of Isis.
Egyptian carnelian Tet Amulet
New Kingdom Dynasty - XIX-XX,
1307-1070 B.C.
It was placed with the deceased in the tomb and was
supposed to be made of a red semi-precious stone in the
form of carnelian or red jasper. Here the Tet amulet
symbolized the blood, the strength, and power of the
goddess Isis and was thought to protect against all evil and
help the dead through the underworld.
As we go back in history, symbolic meaning-making takes
the lead, and in a reality shaped by analog and magic
thinking, the associations from carnelian colors to
blood are strong and obvious. It is not unlikely that the ancient Indians and
Mesopotamians had similar
beliefs or, at least, were living in the same bronze-age
layers of symbolic meaning-making. However, these
ancient cultures did not invent the word 'carne'. This
the Romans did. The Roman civilization was, however, to
a large extend based on the Greek and Greaco-Egyptian
cultures. In this context, it is interesting to notice
that Isis was the most popular Egyptian 'export'-god in the Greaco-Roman world. Therefore it is not unlikely that
not the word 'carne' but the meaning behind it was taken
from the Isis-cult and in a broader perspective from the
ancient
lucky latitude river-cultures that came before
them.
Even seen from a chemical viewpoint, the carne/carnelian
connection gives sense; Iron oxides give colors to both blood and
carnelian in the form of hemoglobin and hematite. When
Ocram's razor
cuts
through the world of etymology,
carnelian, as derived from 'carne', comes out as my
choice. A basically only European localizeable cherry
was for sure a fitting name to use for Hildegard von
Bingen, but would, even if it was the true origin of the
naming of carnelian, have so many neocolonial
connotations, that a false but a more historically,
symbolically respectful and less eurocentric name would
be more fitting. I am here not trying to bring woke
into the world of beads, but it cannot harm with a
little provocative inspiration now and then, even from
strange and alien ideologies.
Appearance and color
However, carnelian is not only red. It can be observed in all graduations, from yellow to
orange to darker reddish, even brown.
The luster can be from waxy, resinous, creamy to
vitreous. Translucency is rare and most valued.
The Indian carnelian
Carnelian has been sourced from many different
localities all over the globe such as Australia, Europe and America. However,
some of the
finest carnelian came from India. I hope the beads
displayed here will bear witness to this claim.
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Source:
The Gods
and symbols of ancient Egypt
Thames &
Hudson
Manfred Lurker
Amulets of
ancient Egypt
Andrews
British
Museum Press |
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India has since neolithic
times used and shaped carnelian into treasured art
objects. This tradition did not die out when the Mughals
came to India. According to local
folklore in Agra, Carnelian was the favorite stone of the beautiful
Indian queen Mumtaz.
She was the beloved wife of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan. When she
died, he had the Taj Mahal made as a mausoleum for her.
In the semi-precious stone inlay work in the inner
sanctum of the Taj Mahal, only the highest
quality of red carnelian was used.
In the Taj Mahal and also the Red
Fort, carnelian is a central stone in the
Pietre
Dure inlays
in the white Makrana marble,
as you can observe in this example from the Butterfly
Pavilion in the Red Fort in New
Delhi:
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Illustration 1
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MINERALOGY
Carnelian's characteristic colors are due to the presence
of various iron oxides and/or hydroxides.
The iron compounds, especially in the hydroxide group,
are found in many chemical variations defined by the
relation between oxygen and hydrogen, which accounts for the wide-spread color-variations
within the family of carnelian.
Hematite
The oxide of trivalent iron, Fe 2 O 3, also named
hematite, colors the stone red, as shown below. Note
the color similarity to the
pietre
dure inlay above and the hematite colored bead
below.
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Hematite mineral
A hematite-carnelian beauty
Read more about this
unique bead here.
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My experience has led me to conclude
that the true deep red and translucent carnelians
primarily originate from ancient
north-west India's Indus sites.
The specimen
you can see above is such an Indian carnelian at its
finest.
Limonite
The hydroxide of iron, Fe (OH) 3, can be found in
many chemical variations in which a variation called
limonite, FeO (OH) nH2O, is the most common in carnelian.
Hydrous
iron oxides are responsible for more yellow, rusty, or directly brown colors.
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Limonite
mineral
A limonite-carnelian bead
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Carnelian
can be found in nature in its pure colored yellow,
orange, red and brown forms. Today, however, it isn't
easy to find natural deep red or orange carnelian. These
stones were too popular since neolithic times.
Strong red and/or orange carnelian colors seems to be
present in hot climate zones. In hot climates, the
original hydroxy-based colors have been altered into
more rusty looking hematite carnelian by nature's own heat treatment
through ages. When it comes to
India's carnelians, the sun's burning heat, to which the
rough stones were exposed, slowly converted the iron
hydroxide into iron oxide and thus contributed to the
coveted red color. So one could say that the Indian
carnelian simply rusted in time. It seems that
especially carnelian, unlike other varieties of
cryptocrystalline quartz, become more beautiful and
colorful when exposed to heat.
As the growing demand depleted the resources of natural
red carnelian already in
the late bronze age, techniques to artificially heat
suitable stones developed.
So much was the
ancient demand for this blood-colored stone that it was difficult to get enough natural
sun-colored carnelian, even in its motherland, India. Hence the
entrepreneurial Indus Valley
people invented the art of
transforming Chalcedony into carnelian via heat treatment.
Looking today at an ancient carnelian bead, it is
impossible, at least for me, to verify if the stone has
been heat-treated or not.
A little Carnelian fairy tale
Below is a
photo I took in Moroccan Sahara, near Hamid. It shows Neolithic flint-tool
remnants lying on the hard crust of the desert. Note the small
carnelian stone there too. It was with no doubt a part of the collection
of stone scrapers, which had been crafted and used by humans in a time
when Sahara was green. For me, this piece looked similar to high-quality carnelian pebble from
Lothal in
India. Has there already at that early stage been an exchange of
goods between Africa and India, or was it a coincidence made by Saharan
heat?
Click on the picture for a larger version
Carnelian with deep red-orange translucent and
homogenous color
There are significant differences in the quality of
carnelian.
Translucent
and color-uniform carnelian seems to have been the most
evaluated since ancient times.
Ideally, carnelian, whether used for
beads or other forms of art, should be without banding
and with a uniform deep translucent red-orange color.
This feature seems to be the case with the ancient bicone Indus valley beads displayed further down.
The iron oxides can be distributed uniformly, as you can
observe in the Indus Valley beads
below or in graduations, as you can observe in the bead above.
The iron oxide patterns can even be seen as
cloudy patches or as
reddish dots, called blood spots by the Tibetans.
Chung DZI with blood spots
THE BEAD PRODUCTION OF
CAMBAY
Beads are great travelers, often with a
never-ending destination. However, they all
have a home, a place of origin. Most of the ancient
carnelian beads found around the globe have originated
from India. Bead making was common throughout the
continent. It mainly depended on
where the materials were available.
Although agate and jasper can be found in many parts of South Asia,
the extent, diversity, and sheer richness of Gujarat
sources are unparalleled.
That could be why Gujarat, in particular, a place called
Cambay still today,
has an alive bead-making tradition where the skils of the ancient bead masters has continued up til present.
Cambay, or
more accurate, the nearby Lothal, a Harrapan outpost, has been a stone-working center since the Indus Valley people started, out of the region's
rich deposits, to make beads of carnelian, onyx, and agate.
Lothal is around 4000 years old, but the Indus people began bead making
and exporting more than
5500 years ago!
The marvelous Cambey carnelian
The high iron content of the carnelian from Gujarat and especially the
area around Cambey accounts for its superb red-orange color, as you can
observe even in the small carnelian
pebbles from Lothal shown above.
Since the Indus period, people with simple
tools have been digging tunnels into the Miocene high iron
saturate agate formations in the Babaguru formation.
The dark red colors are amplified by drying the stones in the sun and
then repeatedly heating them. The
techniques and tools used by the Indian artists have only changed a little
since the days of the Indus Valley culture. Their beads are all hand-made and, therefore, less uniform in size and shape. The Cambay carnelian beads have the warmth and beauty that come from being handcrafted. Because of their enduring appeal, Cambay is still one of the largest stone
manufacturing places in the world.
Africa was the major consumer of the
region’s output.
However, according to my friend and top bead expert
Sanatan Khavadiya, the carnelian with the deepest red color came
from Aurangabad in Maharastra! This is just to remind us of how little
we still know about beads and things in general.
The global spread of beads due to Islam
From AD 1300, the industry began to re-flourish in the
Cambay area, as artisans produced Muslim amulets, prayer
strands, and great quantities of carnelian beads for the
African and middle eastern market. Arab traders ferried
these goods to East Africa in monsoon-driven dhows or
carried them to Mecca and Cairo and thence into West Africa via camel caravans.
In this way,
Muslims became to a great extent the transporters of beads, mainly
due to the implicit religious demand, Haji, to travel to Mecca at
least once in a lifetime, no matter where on the globe
you as a Moslem were settled. Beads were easy to carry
and easy to sell in exchange for
provision on the long strenuous journeys. Islam was an international
religious and, therefore, also cultural phenomenon with Arabic as the
lingua franca. Islam was at its height, bringing people from all
races and cultures together in a tremendous global
melting pot. As long as you had converted, it did not
matter what color your skin had or what language you
spoke. Where Islam was, beads followed, and they got
mixed up the same way as the people who wore them.
Before Islam, Buddhism was doing the same thing in
opposition to the more feudal and non-travelling
Hindu caste culture.
The holy Bead Man, Baba Ghor
Around 1500, Cambey further expanded and became a colossal bead
industry, when Muslim settlers led by the Ethiopian
Saint Baba Ghor, which means Holy Bead-Man,
started to mass-produce beads on an up till then unknown scale.
Cambey versus Idar Oberstein
This bead production was unchallenged for hundreds of
years. However 19th century brought competition, first
of all from carnelian beads and ornaments carved in the
city, Idar-Oberstein, in Germany. Shortly after, molded glass imitations made in Bohemia
were flooding Africa. The Indian bead industry could not
deliver beads in the Idar Oberstein quality, and hence
the Cambay bead trade declined to a great extent.
ANCIENT INDUS
BEADS FROM INDIA VIA
MESOPOTAMIA
The bead displayed below is
a heptagon shaped carnelian Bead. It is
radiating age like a face full of wrinkles. The bead has
been 'etched' by
thousands of years of sleep. A closer examination
discloses the highest quality of deep red carnelian. The
calcified layer was very hard and thick.
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CARN
1 - 15,5 * 10 mm
Here I made a cardinal sin by removing most of the
calcified layers.
By doing so, the inner translucent color-quality of the
carnelian stone is able
to come out. I consider this one of the most beautiful
carnelian stones in
my collection. After this radical cleaning, the bead
shines
with a bright red color even in an ordinary light
setting.
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This
thickness of the layer could be due to special
concentrated chemicals in the ground it was lying in. It
could also be burial-bead calcification, where a bead
becomes calcified by being close to a
decomposed body.
The
hexagonal beads
displayed here
are among the most surface-altered beads in my collection when
taking both chemical layers and polish by wear into
consideration. Could it be that the carnelian they were
made of is softer than the average carnelian? I don't
think so. Considerable age, wear and tear is the best
explanation for their current shape.
5000 years
of Saharan sleep
The unique deep red carnelian bead displayed above was found by a Danish archeology professor during his excavations.
It was placed among far more primitive-shaped stone beads
in a Neolithic grave in Moroccan Sahara.
This bead must be around 5000 years old, because the
many settlements are from the Saharan wet period. They
are dating from 8000 BC. up to
3000 BC. From then onwards, Sahara transformed into a dessert,
and the hunter gatherers began to abandon the area.
GO2 more Mesopotamian style carnelian beads
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INDUS VALLEY BICONE CARNLIAN BEADS
Displayed below, you will find carnelian beads with a
more orange color. The colors and translucency of these
beads are perfectly homogeneous.
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NB!
It is here important
to mention that most beads only will reveal
their full
potential when magnified through a macro lens and
illumined with the right
kind of light.
An ancient bead will never show its full luster, colors and
patterns without a magnifying lens and the right light settings.
This is especially true for small beads and beads that
display various degrees of translucency.
Translucent beads have by nature a 'hidden' world
inside the stone material of the bead itself, that only
can be fully exposed through extra light sources.
The inner translucency of a bead will only reveal a
minimum of its beauty in an ordinary
light set and setting.
Same bead as above
I have in the exhibition below tried to make a compromise
between the inner and outer life of the beads.
In this way of capturing the beads, imperfections
will be largely exaggerated, as when compared to how the
bead will look in your hand.
I know this will scare away the eastern collector going
for impossible perfection. However, a western conditioned
mind seems to have a liking for 'broken
beauty'.
As a western collector of ancient beads, I share that liking.
Also, bear in mind that the beads appear relatively bigger on
this display.
You can always ask for a more 'realistic' photo taken from my
iPhone.
24,5 * 8,5 mm
Displayed above you can observe the radical difference
the light setting is for photographing translucent
carnelian beads. In the right light the high quality carnelian
beads will reveal a deep red color, not visible in ordinary
daylight. Hence most of the beads bead displayed below
are much more orange and/or red-colored than what meets
the daylight eye.
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Displayed below, you will find carnelian beads with a
more orange color. The colors and translucency of these
beads are perfectly homogeneous.
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The design of this bead is not particular exiting.
It is the carnelian material itself that takes the price!
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Below you can see a more yellowish, golden variation of
translucent carnelian.
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| Displayed below you can see wonderful fiery translucent
multicolored colored red-yellow-orange carnelian beads.
Such color-variations are a result of various blends of
iron oxides and hydroxides. |
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Small top quality carnelian beads
The small ancient beads displayed below are
naturally marked by time. However, the quality of the
carnelian with its deep uniform transparent orange-red
color is still second to none. Such ideal carnelian is
mostly found in smaller pieces.
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However, in rare cases, we can find larger beads with a
unique homogeneous deep red luster, as seen in the, by
now famous specimen below
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SMALL BICONICAL INDUS VALLEY CARNELIAN BEADS
The beads displayed below are typical for the Harappan
Indus Civilization, with their special bicone-shaped design and large,
hourglass shaped
holes.
The Indians call this shape the dholak design
named after their ancient double drum.
You can see
this type of beads displayed
in the National Museum in New Delhi or in the
British Museum. Below we can observe the same beads found in both an
Egyptian and Mesopotamian grave.
One can clearly see the Harappan
origin of these beads. |
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Egyptian neclace -
Walters Art Museum
Mesopotamian neclace from Ur -
British Museeum
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The biconical carnelian Indus beads displayed here have
been photographed in such a way that their inherent red
color is revealed. Seen from a distance in normal
day-light, they would have a color closer to the ones
from the Egyptian necklace above.
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CARN-INDUS 1
- 8,8 * 7,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 2
- 8 * 8 mm |
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CARN-INDUS 3 - 9,8 * 8,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 4
- 11 * 8 mm
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CARN-INDUS
5 - 12,1 * 8,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 6
- 10 * 7 ,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 7 - 14,2 * 7,5-9 mm
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CARN-INDUS
8 - 8 * 7,4 mm
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CARN-INDUS 9
- 10,1 * 7,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 10
- 8,5 * 7,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS
11 - 8,6 * 7 mm
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CARN-INDUS 12 - 9,9 * 7,1
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CARN-INDUS
13 - 9,6 * 7 mm
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CARN-INDUS 14
- 9 * 7 mm
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CARN-INDUS 15 - 10 * 7,1-5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 16 - 10,7 * 6,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 17 - 11 * 5,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 18 - 8,9 * 6,9 mm
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CARN-INDUS
19 - 8,7 * 7,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS
20 - 10 * 8,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 21
- 10,2 * 8,5 * 8 mm
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CARN-INDUS 22 - 9,5 * 7 mm
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CARN-INDUS 23
- 10 * 7,1-5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 24 - 18 * 12 mm
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CARN-INDUS
25 - 9,9 * 7,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 27
- 16 * 11 mm
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CARN-INDUS
28 - 11 * 8 mm
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CARN-INDUS 29 - 11,2 * 7,9 mm
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CARN-INDUS
30 - 13,9 * 8,9 mm
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CARN-INDUS 31 - 12,1 * 10 mm
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CARN-INDUS 32 - 12,8 * 8 mm
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CARN-INDUS
33 - 10 * 9 mm
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CARN-INDUS
34 - 11 * 7,7 mm
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CARN-INDUS 35 - 10 * 9 mm
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CARN-INDUS
36 - 9,5 * 7,9 mm
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CARN-INDUS 37 - 8,5 * 8 mm
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CARN-INDUS 38
- 9,9 * 8,8 mm
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CARN-INDUS
39 - 8,2 * 7 mm
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CARN-INDUS 40 - 9,2 * 7,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 41
- 9,6 * 8,9 mm
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CARN-INDUS
42 - 8,5 * 8,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 43 - 9,5 * 8,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 44 - 9,2 * 9 mm
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CARN-INDUS 45 - 10 * 6,8 mm
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CARN-INDUS 46 - 10 * 7,9 mm
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CARN-INDUS 47 - 9,1 * 8,5 mm
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CARN-INDUS 48 - 8,5 * 8 mm
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CARN-INDUS 49
- 9,2 * 7,1-3 mm
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CARN-INDUS 50 - 11,5 * mm
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CARN-INDUS
51 - 9 * 6,1 mm
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CARN-INDUS 52 - 8,1 * 8 mm
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CARN-INDUS 53
- 8 * 7 mm
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Please note the change in proportionality in the section
to come. The beads above are not as big as they could
seem in comparison to the following display.
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CARN-INDUS - LOT 54 - bead to the right: 10,7 * 5 mm
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CARN-INDUS - LOT -55 - bead in the middle: 9,5 * 5,2 mm
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CARN-INDUS - LOT - 56 - lowest bead: 11,2 * 4 mm
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CARN-INDUS - LOT - 57 - lowest bead: 12,7 * 3 mm
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CARN-INDUS - LOT - 58 - Cornerless cubes - lowest left: 11,5 * 10 * 7 mm
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CARN-INDUS - LOT -59 - lowest left 7 * 6 * 4 mm
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CARN - LOT - 2 - lowest bead: 16,5 * 6,5 * 4 mm
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CARN 3 - 18 * 11,8 * 7,2 mm
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CARN 4 - 18,5 * 11 * 7 mm
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CARN 5 - 13,5 * 6 mm
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CARN 6 - 16,2 * 8 * 6,5 mm
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CARN 7 - 15,5 * 7 * 6,5 mm
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CARN 8 - 16 * 7,5 mm
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CARN 9 - 26,3 * 11 mn
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CARN-INDUS-MESOPOTAMIA
1
- 10 * 9 mm
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CARN 10 - 11,5 * 9 mm
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CARN 11 - 15 * 7 mm
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CARN INDUS LOT 60 - largest: 13 * 5 mm
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CARN LOT 12 - Yellow down left: 6 * 4,2 mm
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CARN INDUS LOT61 - 8,5 * 4,8 mm
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CARN INDUS LOT 62 - standing left: 9,9 * 4 mm
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CARN INDUS LOT 63 - down right: 7 * 4 mm
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CARN LOT 13 - upper: 7 * 4,5 mm
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CARN LOT 14 - average 5 mm
Relatively larger than shown in proportion
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CARN INDUS LOT 64 - down right: 10,5 * 7,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 65 - 9 mm
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CARN INDUS 66 - 15,5 * 8,2 mm
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CARN INDUS 67 - 15 * 5,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 68 - 7,5 * 5,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 69 - 13,5 * 9,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 70 - 11 * 7 mm
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CARN INDUS 71- 12 * 11 * 8 mm
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CARN INDUS 72 - 10-11 * 8,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 73 - 6,8 mm
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CARN INDUS 74 - 9 * 8 mm
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CARN 15 - 11,5/12 mm
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CARN 16 - 8 * 4,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 75 - 15,2 * 11/9,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 76 - 13,5 * 8 * 7,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 77 - 11,2 * 10 * 9 mm
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CARN 17 - 14,1 * 6,9 mm
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CARN INDUS 78 - 15,2 * 6,2 mm
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CARN INDUS 79 - 32,2 * 7 mm
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CARN INDUS 80 - 49 * 6 mm
Relatively longer than shown in proportion
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CARN INDUS 81 - 42,8 * 5,8 mm
Relatively longer than shown in proportion
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CARN INDUS LOT 82 - Lowest: 29 * 5 mm
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CARN INDUS 83 - 13,3 * 7 * 3,2 mm
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CARN 18 - 51 * 13 mm
Relatively larger than shown in proportion
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The octagon shaped bead
above and the family o similar designed beads here could
easily be confused with antique beads from
Idar-Oberstein. However these designs have been around
since the Indus-period.
However, as displayed above the drill technique for
making the hole is ancient, in this case more than 1500
years.
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CARN 19 - 41 * 10,2 mm
Relatively larger than shown in proportion
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CARN INDUS 84 - 21,6 * 8,1 mm
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CARN INDUS 85 - 24 * 7,2 mm
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Displayed above: A
hexagon Indus bead
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CARN INDUS 86 - 22,1 * 6,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 87 - 20 * 6 mm
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CARN INDUS 88- 23,5 * 7 mm
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CARN INDUS 89 - 16 * 7,1 mm
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CARN INDUS 90 - 17,5 * 6,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 91 - 14,5 * 6,2 mm
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CARN INDUS 92 - 12,1 * 6,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 93 - 10,1 * 6,6 mm
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CARN INDUS 94 - 16.9 * 5,6 mm
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CARN INDUS 95 - 17,1 * 6,8 mm
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CARN INDUS 96 - 18,5 * 6,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 97 - 15,1 * 6 mm
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CARN INDUS 98 - 14,5 * 6 mm
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CARN INDUS 99 - 13 * 6,1 mm
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CARN INDUS 100 - 11,8 * 6,9 mm
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CARN INDUS 101- 14 * 5,9 mm
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CARN INDUS 102 - 13,5 * 5,9 mm
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CARN INDUS 103 - 18,5 * 6,5 mm
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CARN INDUS 104- 11,5 * 5,8 mm
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Please note the change in proportionality in the section
to come.
Ball shaped carnelian beads |
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CARN - LOT 20 - Upper left: 17 * 13,5 mm
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CARN - LOT 21 - Left: 15 * 14,8 mm
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CARN - LOT 22 - Upper Left: 17 * 14,8 mm
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CARN - LOT 23 - Left: 15 * 13,6 mm
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CARN - LOT 24 - Upper left: 10,5 * 9,1 mm
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CARN - LOT 25 - 7-8 mm
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CARN - LOT 26 - Lower left: 10 mm
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CARN - LOT 27 - Lower right: 11-10 mm
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CARN - LOT 28 - Left: 12 mm
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CARN - LOT 29 - Left: 14-13 mm
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CARN - LOT 30 - Lower left: 12,5-11,5 mm
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CARN - LOT 31 - Low left 9,5-8 mm
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CARN - LOT 32 - 8 mm
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CARN - LOT 33 -
Lower left: 12-11 mm
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CARN - LOT 34 - Lower left: 14 mm
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CARN - LOT 35 - Lower left: 14-13 mm
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CARN 36 - 17 mm
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CARN 37 - 19-18 mm
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CARN 38 - 18 - 17,5 mm
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CARN 39 - 12-11,5 mm
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CARN 40 - 15 mm
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CARN 41 - 17 mm
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CARN 42 - 12 mm
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CARN 43 - 18 * 16 mm
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CARN 44 - 17 mm
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CARN 45 - 12-11,5 mm
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CARN - LOT 46 - Low: 13 mm
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CARN - LOT 47
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CARN 48 - 24 * 23 * 7,2 mm
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CARN 49 - 27 * 23,5 * 9 mm
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Two amulets. The above
from India. Below from Sahara.
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CARN 50 - 28,5 * 12 * 12 mm
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CARN 51 - 33 * 9,5 mm
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CARN 52 - 20 * 6 mm
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CARN INDUS 105 - 14 * 9 * 5,5 mm
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CARN 53 - 22,5 * 14,2 * 7,9 mm
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CARN - LOT INDUS 106 - Disk shaped - lowest bead: 12,5 * 4,9 mm
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CARN INDUS 107 - 11 * 10 mm
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CARN - LOT INDUS 108 - lowest bead: 15 * 11,3¨* 5 mm
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CARN INDUS 108 - 16 * 9,5 * 5 mm
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CARN INDUS 109 - 15 * 9 mm
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CARN INDUS 110- 14 * 11 * 8 mm
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CARN INDUS 111 - 15 * 12,5 * 5,5 mm
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CAMBEY CARNELIAN BEADS
The huge non-transparent bead below was sourced in
Punjab, India. As one can observe on the sharp edges of the hole, this
super-large and heavy carnelian bead has never been used,
or at least not much. It looks new. However, the discoloring made by calcium in the earth reveals that this bead actually is ancient.
I have found exactly similar beads in Africa. In
the section with
African
Fulani Beads, you can observe these beads.
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CARN 54 - 60 * 31 * 28 mm
This bead does
have banding. So one could also call it a red agate bead.
However this is a distinction without
a much difference,
as both are red-orange cryptocrystaline
quartz.
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This bead is an example of the huge bead trade from
India to Africa going on since ancient times.
Fulani bead sourced from
Africa
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CARN 55 -
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CARN 56 -
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CARN 57 -
18 * 13 mm - SOLD
Hexagon
Moroccan Sahara
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After this find, I went to Morocco and found a few
similar beads in Marrakech. I was extremely lucky to
purchase some on the internet too.
Indus beads made for export
According to the bead expert Malik Hakila, the facetted
carnelian beads above and below display the typical
carnelian orange-red shine that in ancient times only
carnelian from the area around Cambey in India had.
However, we don't find facetted carnelians beads in the
Indus Civilization. As we can observe through bead
history, every geographical area in every historical time
had its own favorite beads with certain patterns, shape,
material, and color. The Indus people did not seem to
like facetted beads, but the Mesopotamians did.
Accordingly, my best guess is that
this wonderful polygon highest quality carnelian disk
bead and the ones you see below were made as long back
as by Indus people for the export to the Mesopotamian
Proto Elamite
elite in the Early Bronze Age. According to science, the trade between the
advanced urban civilizations of Mesopotamia and the
Indus began around 2600 BC. For this facetted Indus
carnelian bead to end up in a Neolithic grave in
Moroccan Sahara, we must at least extend this relation
back to 3000 BC and maybe even further! Some historians
relate the earliest Proto
Elamite script with the Indian Dravidian language,
which points at the existence of an Elamo-Dravidian culture
stretching all the way from the Gulf to India. Seen
in the light of the Elamo-Dravidian connection, bead-making and
exporting relations between the two areas might very
well open up for the possibility of an Indus bead ending
up in a Saharan Neolithic grave.
The Proto Elamites had trading
relations with Neolithic cultures as far as northwest
Africa. For the Neolithic people in west Sahara the Proto Elamites were
the closest 'higher' trading civilization at the time of
the decline of water in the area.
So this super ancient bead most probably ended up here due to the exchange
of goods with contemporary but more far more advanced cultures further
east.
Remnants from several Neolithic
settlements can be found in the Moroccan Sahara. For sure, these Neolithic
cultures did not have the technology to
fabricate polished polygonal-shaped beads.
As you can see here, Neolithic beads
from
West Sahara have a far more 'primitive' design equivalent to their
technological level in general.
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Neolithic Crystal beads from West Sahara - 12 * 5 mm
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From India to Nigeria
Beads are indeed great travelers, and their journey is
often proportional with their age. The beautiful and
large heptagon bead displayed below was a part of an
ornament from the Kings of Benin, Nigeria, 1000 to 1300
A.D. It might have been ancient way before it reached
the African mainland. Note the extremely high quality in
the carnelian material itself. It is rare to find such a large
bead with this ideal deep orange-red translucent and
perfect uniform Cambey color. It does not look so old as
the other beads, and this bead shape was produced for
thousands of years after the Indus period. However the
carnelian itself points to the same period as its more
torn and worn brothers.
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CARN
58 - 22,5 * 12, 5 mm
Heptagon carnelian bead
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In the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen, there is said to be an exactly
similar bead to the one displayed above, woven into the dress of a
chieftain from Papa New Guinea! This particular bead has never been in
the possession of Europeans. Most probably it went eastwards from
India via Chinese sea trading routes to Papua New Guinea.
Displayed below is a ancient pentagon-shaped carnelian bead
sourced from the Harappan Indus
culture in Pakistan. As mentioned, it is rare to find this type
of bead in the Indus area.
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CARN
59 -
17,5 * 13 mm
Pentagon
bead
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THE TALISMANIC
POWER OF ANCIENT BEADS
I love that the bead displayed above has become softly rounded through
contact with countless generations of human skin. Again we find the
highest quality of carnelian. The discoloring of the bead has been made
by earth and time.
The ancient signature
Why love beads that show extreme wear and tear?
Because they have wrinkles like a face of an old wise man.
Because they are imperfect. Perfection has no spiritual life.
Young people are seldom spiritual. Spirit grows with age in both beads
and humans.
These worn-out beads are perfectly imperfect.
Time has put its mark on them like the softly rounded stones on the beach.
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CARN 60 - 18,2 * 11 mm
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CARN 61 - 23-22 * 11,1 mm
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CARN 62 - 18 * 12,5 mm
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CARN 63 - 25-24 * 12 mm
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CARN 64 - 15,9 * 9,3 mm
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CARN 65 - 13,5-13 * 7,5 mm
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CARN 66 - 20-19,5 * 12,1 mm
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I do not have many beads in my collection that has been so much polished
by wearing as the beads displayed here. These beads must be super ancient. Carnelian has a hardness on
the Mohr scale between 6,5 to 7. Imagine how much time in contact
with human skin it need to make beads like the ones you see here!
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CARN 67 - 18 * 10,2 mm
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CARN 68 - 19,5-18,5 * 13 mm
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CARN 69 - 18 * 15 mm
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CARN 70 - 15 * 12 mm
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CARN 70 - 16 * 13 mm
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CARN 72 - 17 * 11 mm
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CARN 73 - 16 * 13 mm
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CARN 74 - 21-18,5 * 10 mm
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CARN 75 - 16,5 * 13 mm
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CARN 76 - 18 * 10,1 mm
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CARN 77 - 19-17 * 14 mm
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CARN 78 - 12,5 * 12 mm
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CARN 79 - 15 * 10 mm
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CARN 80 - 14,5 * 9,5 mm
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CARN 81 - 17-16 * 11,9 mm
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CARN 82 - 16-15 * 8,5 mm
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CARN 83 - 12,5 * 10 mm
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CARN 84 - 17-16 * 10,9 mm
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CARN LOT 85 - left Middle: 12,8 * 8 mm
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CARN 86 - 16 * 12 mm
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CARN
87 -
20-19 * 11 mm -
Hexagon
Moroccan Sahara
This magick bead has been
polished almost round by time
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Most
of these beads were sourced from Moroccan Sahara. It shows, what cannot surprise: that the earliest
higher civilizations had trading contact with the hunter-gatherer civilizations which surrounded them. As you can observe on the page
Neolithic beads, most
of the beads displayed here are more crudely made. Only more 'advanced'
societies could make beads like the fine polished and facetted beads
displayed above. Many of them exhibit the highest quality of carnelian.
However, we must also take into the equation that many of these bead shapes were so popular that they were copied and produced in Africa
almost up to up to our time. Patina, wear and tear and the size and
design of holes are therefore most important in the time-lining of them.
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From ancient production to Baba Ghors mass-production
Beads like those displayed above were produced for
export by the Indus people from more than 5000 years ago.
You can compare the Indus beads OIV 9 and 10 above with
the beads below to see the similarity in design.
Several of the beads displayed below are most
likely to be 'only' around 500 years old. They are from the
heydays of Baba
Ghor, whom I mentioned in the beginning. The Baba
Ghor beads are, what is easy to observe, made
out of carnelian stones of a far lesser quality than the
much older
Indus beads
above. Baba Ghors export beads are not rare and not as old as the above
high-quality Indus carnelian beads. The holes are smaller. The craftmanship
is primitive but powerful like an African tribal mask.
These beads are still available for collectors, but for how
long?
Is the baba Ghor story a myth?
However, when I look at these beads, they do not seem to
be 'only' 500 years old. They look ancient to me. I
recently talked to an Indian bead expert, who told me
that according to his view, the Baba Ghor story was a
myth. He told me that there since ancient times had been
a huge amount of ancient beads scattered around n the
area. As an example he mentioned an area in Gujarat
called Ghansor, or Naga Baba Ghansor. In this area, like
many other similar people had for generations collected
beads from Indus sites and sold to especially the Moslem
faqirs. Beads like the ones below were then not produced
500 years back but collected from sites since the last
500 years. I tend to believe this explanation more than
the official Baba Ghor myth.
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CARN 88 - 24 * 23 * 8 mm
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CARN 89 - 24 * 20 * 8 mm |
Click on pictures for larger image
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CARN 90 - 22 * 20 * 7 mm - SOLD
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CARN 91 - 33 * 29 * 8 mm |
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CARN 92 - 26 * 23 * 10 mm
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CARN 93 - 29 * 26 * 7 mm
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CARN 94 - 22 * 21 * 8 mm
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CARN 95 -
25 * 20 * 8,5 mm |
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CARN 96 - 15 * 12 * 5 mm
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CARN 97 - 18 * 13 * 5 mm
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CARN 98 - 39 * 16 mm
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CARN 99 - 39 * 13 * 9 mm
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Some of the beads above and below are thousands of
years old. Others are from the
times of Baba Ghor.
in the 15. Century. Again others are trade beads from
Idar Oberstein in the 18. Century:
How to tell the difference? Often
wear and tear is the only indicator of age because the
designs of these beads are ancient. They can be
traced back to Indus Culture. A comparison between the
bead designs below with
the bead shown in this Harappan link
will further substantiate this claim. It is unlikely that Baba Ghor and his followers
invented any new bead designs. Most probably, they did as
Muslim conquerors were best at all the new territories
they came to: sampling information and skills from the
already existing cultures. The production in Idar
Obersten again copied the Ghor beads to ensure a
steady demand from Africa. In this way, the Germans made
copies of Indus valley beads.
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CARN 100 - 23 * 12 mm
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CARN 101 - 22 * 12 mm |
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CARN 102 - 22 * 10 mm
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CARN 103 - 25 * 13 mm
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CARN 104 - 24 * 12 mm
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Baba Ghor beads?
How much wear and tear will carnelian beads have
after 500 years? My guess is that the beads above are
older than the Cambey Ghor period. The 6 beads below are
in my opinion more in sync with not thousands, but
hundreds of years of human time ravage.
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CARN 105 - 24 * 10 mm
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CARN 106 - 19 * 8 mm |
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CARN 107 -
25 * 11 mm
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CARN 108 - 30 * 13 mm |
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CARN 109 - 23 * 10 mm
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CARN 110 - 30 * 9 mm |
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INDIAN SARD BEADS
Sard is like carnelian a variety of chalcedony. It is
however harder with 7 on the Mohr scale, whereas carnelian
centers around 6,5. Sard is as you can see below brownish yellow
in color.
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Click on picture for larger version
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30 * 30 * 11 mm |
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CARN - 111
Translucent sard bead from India. The shine in this bead is
very special.
Unfortunately the photo is not able to reflect it.
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CARN 112 -
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