La parure en callaïs du Néolithique européen

Callaïs refers to the green stones from which the remarkable ornaments discovered in several Neolithic sites in Western Europe are made. A term used at the beginning of our era by Pliny the Elder and taken up by the first archaeologists of the early 20th century during the first excavations of the large tumuli of the Carnac region (Morbihan), callaïs includes several mineral species, especially variscite and turquoise, both hydrated aluminium phosphates with a green to blue colour. Beads and pendants made of this precious material, combined with other objects such as axes made of alpine jade, fibrolite, amber or jet beads, sometimes from very distant sources, were deposited with the deceased, reflecting their high rank among the first agropastoral societies, or «sacrificed» in the form of deposits. The question of the nature and origin of these Callaïs pearls and pendants has been discussed many times during the last century by mineralogists and prehistorians. Since the first discoveries on this gem, many researches have been carried out both in the field and in the laboratory to elucidate what some had called ‘the mysteries of the callaïs’.

This volume, prefaced by Yves Coppens, Honorary Professor of the Collège de France, brings together the contributions of the best European specialists in callaïs, variscite and turquoise, who spoke at a symposium on this ancient gemstone held in April 2015 in Carnac. The objective of this book is to disclose the results of the latest research relating to these jewels by scanning multiple fields: variscite geology, gemmology, Neolithic but also Roman exploitations, chemical characterization, production of objects and their diffusion, inventory, dating, place of these jewels within agropastoral societies that occupied part of Europe from the 5th to the 3rd millennium.