Re: Inquiry from an archaeologist in Norway... | |||||
Re: Inquiry from an archaeologist in Norway... -- Joyce | Post Reply | Edit | Forum | Where am I? |
Before they started using these types of stones, the Idar-Oberstein region already had a history of cutting agates and other locally found stones. These stones were generally of a different type than the Brazilian ones with quite a different appearance. The first record of agate cutting in Idar-Oberstein goes back as far as 1454.
So it is possible that this is an 'older generation' stone bead, cut and sourced from Idar-Oberstein. This would fit with the timeline that is suggested. I have not seen examples of any older beads (before the Brazilian agate) in the Idar-Oberstein museums, so that makes it difficult to really know anything about beads from that time period for sure.
I am no stone expert, but I would agree with Frank that it looks more like jasper than agate.