337 (28)

310

Dress Accessońes

English lapidaries from the 12th century onwards (Evans 1922, 198-99 & 221). It was thought to be effective against thunder and lightning, impris-onment, and defeat in battle, and in the medical realm against gout, sore eyes, and other dis-eases. A necklace of coral and lodestone was thought in c.1300 to assist in childbirth (ibid, 31-36, 55 & 112). Nonę of this is necessarily of specific relevance to the excavated items.

Red coral (Corallium rubrum) grows in the Mediterranean Sea (see Webster 1975, 499-501). For contemporary awareness in north-west Europę of the marinę origin of exotic red coral, see Evans (op cit, 227). The long-distance trade which brought this materiał to England was pri-marily based on other goods, such as spices and Italian textiles.

Five unworked pieces of coral (up to d 3, 1 13mm, see colour pl 11 A) found washed out of a section at the Trig Lane site may have come from the same dump as nos. 1547-51. One retains pieces of marinę serpulid worm tubing on the surface. (Dr P Comelius and Dr JD George of the British Museum, Natural History, kindly identi-fied the coral and the casts.)

Ali three deposits in which coral items nos. 1547-51 were found also produced amber bead-manufacturing waste (see above), corresponding with unfinished item no. 1551 here.

The worked coral seems to have been cut with a knife into lengths, leaving a mark on one side close to the edge. This relatively hard materiał appears to have broken under the initial pressure from the blade. Since each item has such a mark only at one end, the pieces could have been produced by manually snapping the coral down to a double length, and using a knife to cut this into two pieces of the present size. It would be rirtually impossible to snap this substance manually below a certain size.

It is difficult to see how the two smali beads (nos. 1550 & 1551) and some of the unfinished items described below would have been used. The two largest pieces (no. 1548) could have been cut into shorter lengths to make beads, or they might have been intended for mounting without further adaptation as charms to help in childbirth or for babies Qohn Cherry, pers. comm., cf Evans 1922, as above). The relatively smali size of most of the pieces recovered could imply that the quality of the products of the industries represented was not particularly high (cf the amber above). Pins nos. 1471-73 have coral heads that are larger than any of the pieces described in this present section. The head of the last resembles a spheroid bead, d 4mm, while the other two are of less regular shape.

1547    TL74 acc. nos. 2381A-E (context 2532) ceramic phase 9

Five pieces, including two bifurcated ones, up to 24mm long; apparently untrimmed.

Cf stage A for amber above.

1548    TL74 2380A & B (2529) 9 fig 206 Two pieces up to 38mm long; apparently untrimmed.

Cf stage A for amber.

1549    TL74 2393A-H (2525) 9

Eight pieces up to 12mm long, including a thick basal piece attached to a fragment of white cup coral of a different family; two pieces are trimmed at one end. Cf stages A and B for amber.

1550    TL74    2410    (2529)    9

Incomplete; d 3, 1 4mm; sides mainly not trimmed, though there is at least one cut longitudinal face; drilled from both ends; possibly broken during the drilling of the hole.

Cf stage B for amber.

1551    TL74    2411    (2529)    9    fig 206 &

colour pl 11A

d 1.5, 1 lmm; sides knife-trimmed, ends possibly as intended, though this tiny bead might have been shortened by breakage; if a drill was used to make the minuscule hole (?not a natural feature), it would have been at about the limit of contemporary technology (see Hawthorne and Smith 1979, 191-92, for Theophilus’ reference to fine Steel drills for putting the holes in pearls).

Cf stage B or C for amber.

1552    BC72 4790 (250) 10 fig 206

d 3, 1 2.5mm; ends cut and snapped; hole not drilled; sides not trimmed.

Cf stage A for amber.

These 18 items came from deposits at both sites which also produced amber working waste - they are therefore probably from the same two work-shops.

BONĘ

No definite bead of bonę was recovered from contexts of the period covered by this volume, but items which appear to be bead-manufacturing waste come from several different deposits. Con-