Amber necklaces

[Franklin]

Attend any SCA event and virtually every pre-1066 persona you encounter (male or female) is sure to be decked out with the ubiquitous amber necklace. Some of them even have multiple necklaces stacked up Mr. T. style. The type of necklace I'm describing here is just raw chunks of natural amber that have been drilled and strung as beads.

I'm wondering, is this type of necklace actually accurate to any period, or any culture? Or is this just another one of those SCA conventions that's been accepted because it "looks cool"?

I do think it might be accurate as part of a Viking kit (both male and female) and perhaps in some Germanic contexts as well, and possibly Rus.

Thoughts?

[Carlton Bach]

I've seen the 'honking big chunk' approach in a few Migration era finds, but the Viking age amber jewelry I know if usually worked at least to some degree. Also, the amber chunks I know from earlier periods are usually combined with glass beads on a chain. Amber is absurdly easy to shape, there's no reason to wear irregular unpolished lumps.

[richsc]

I don't think amber has been part of any Roman jewelery that I recall. The standard finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum are silver, pearl, gold, emerald, and faience melon beads. The Snettisham Horde is all silver and carnelian. I dont' think you see any amber in the Fayum portraits.

[Franklin]

Apparently it appears in the archaeological record on occasion, but not very regularly.

"Amber occurs from time to time in Roman jewellery from Britain, but was not in common use. A fine amber ring with a head of Minerva in high relief comes from Carlisle...Very elaborately carved amber finger rings with bezels that must rank as small sculptures were made at a major manufacturing center in Aquileia in northern Italy, and have been found elsewhere on the continent." Catherine Johns, The Jewellery of Roman Britain

She also describes a fine amber necklace from London.

I was mostly curious about the chunky raw amber necklaces I see at SCA events. I don't really think they appear in a Roman context, but I could see them perhaps passing as part of a barbarian kit. Just wondered if anybody could help lend credence to that theory.

[gaiusseptimiuslucianus]

I was mostly curious about the chunky raw amber necklaces I see at SCA events. I don't really think they appear in a Roman context, but I could see them perhaps passing as part of a barbarian kit. Just wondered if anybody could help lend credence to that theory.

Franklin,

I have been looking a lot at early Anglo Saxon archeology recently and you do see some relatively unworked amber beads in those contexts (see the necklace from Buckland, Kent grave #59 for example) but otherwise most of the amber that you tend to see is worked at least somewhat. There is an illustration of the Buckland grave 59 necklace on the back cover of Birte Brugmann's, Glass Beads from Anglo-Saxon Graves: A Study on the Provenance and Chronology of Glass Beads from Anglo-Saxon Graves, Based on Visual Examination, Oxbow Books, 2004. Carlton is quite correct when he says it can be very easily worked.

Two excellent archeology reports for early Anglo Saxon cemeteries:

Dover: the Buckland Anglo-Saxon cemetery / Vera I. Evison.
London : Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 1987.
412 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, plans (some col.) ; 30 cm.

The Anglo-Saxon cemetery on Mill Hill, Deal, Kent / Keith Parfitt and Birte Brugmann ; with contributions by Trevor Anderson ... [et al.].
London : The Society for Medieval Archaeology, 1997.
xviii, 291 p., [1] leaf of plates : ill., facsims. ; 26 cm.

Another bead datapoint, albeit from the Viking period, may be found in Viking Beads from Frojel Port of Trade, a CD also available from Oxbow/David Brown. I don't have this CD so I can't comment on the contents but a short version is available online at: http://www.hgo.se/frojel/Object%20Gallery/default.html

I do think that the wearing of big honking amber necklaces by both sexes is very much an "SCAism." I my reckoning (in the East Kingdom at least), it has grown up in the last 20 years since one merchant in particular has been selling these types of necklaces. Prior to her beginning to merchant her amber and other necklaces there really wasn't anyone selling that sort of thing in the East.

At least in terms of the early Anglo Saxons, men did not wear bead necklaces. The mortuary archeology shows women only with them and they tended to be worn suspended between a pair of brooches. If beads are found in men's graves it is one or two beads only and the experts believe they might have been acting as a closure of some sort.

So I guess that doesn't exactly answer your question in terms of the Roman empire but the answer for the Anglo Saxon bits of Britain around 500-600CE would have to be scattered amber beads, somewhat worked but not necessarily big necklaces or multiple necklaces of chunks.

Hope this is a help,

Lucianus

[Caius Fabius]

Actually the amber trade with the Baltic is recorded at the time of Tiberius when Romans traveled to bring back amber from Northern Poland and southwestern Lithuania.. The museum in Napoli had a big amber exhibit while I was there, and there were Roman amber necklaces on display in several museums, including exhibits in Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy.. Usually the amber was polished and in the form of large beads. I have several photos in my collection. Some necklaces from the early second century have polished and raw amber alternating. Others mix amber with glass beads, or other stones. There were pure amber rings and amber pieces used a seals and seal rings.

I was unaware of the extent of the amber trade until I stayed in Lithuania for a couple of weeks, visited local museums there with Roman artifacts found in the area and picked up a DVD in the style of a historic channel show about the Roman amber road. I think I left that sitting on a table at Jasper's place, but I suspect that I can get another one from some of my Lithuanian friends.

The chunky Raw Amber necklaces would have been unusual, but the polished amber necklaces were definitely prized by Romans, and amber rings and necklaces are certainly part of post 2nd century AD Roman finds throughout the Empires borders.

[Muzzaguchi]

Pliny talks of Amber in his Natural History (I'll post the references when I get home) Book 4 and Book 37 I think. He mentions that Amber was worn to ward off illnesses especially tonsillitis and goiter and women wore beads to protect against thyroid conditions. These could have been amulets or chunks (but probably one chunk not a string of them). There is also his description of the expedition to bring Amber back from the Baltic - probably some time around 65 AD. He talks of chunks there and that everything for the Gladiatorial contests was decorated with amber. I'll get quotes later but possibly the richer you were the more 'worked' your amber could have been - the medicinal property of a chunk would have been as valid though. Also given the high prices in amber, unworked bits may have been cheaper.
Cheers

Murray

[Nathan Beal]

The lumps are a by product of mechanical tumbling and necklaces of this type are very modern.

The 'lumps' of amber found on all the period exampels i have come across (Viking stuff not Roman) are quite sizeable and even the slightly worked examples are typically far more regular.

We have the same problem over here with viking period reenactors, Regia banned them a fair while back and i beleve the Vikings have also done so.

N.

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Franklin I believe the amber necklaces you see at a SCA events are a phenomena that is unique to the SCA culture.

I remember once when I was researching 10th cent Viking kits that amber necklaces were mainly considered for women, and usually they were worked into beads, or other shapes, and not left in the raw form.

[Caius Marius]

Warning: Drifting off topic at the start:

I have tended to find that the SCA is a bit of a "stepping stone" or a way for some folks to develop an interest in some form of historical based re-creation.( At least here in the States) Not historically accurate for the most part, hence the use of "Creative Anachronism" in its name, I think. :wink: Yet I have found that it is an easy place to start experimenting with this type of re-creation, at least here in the states where it seems to be everywhere as well as slightly more established, as opposed to most of the other groups found here. Yeah its easy to knock them, but if it wasn't for them in my early years of wanting to re-enact history, and later the proliferation of the internet, I know many folks who wouldn't even be aware of yet involved with attempting re-creating any form of history what-so-ever.

Now, back on track.....

Yeah, for some reason it appears to have caught on as a viking, angle, saxon, barbarian, dark age jewelry fad as far as SCA-goers are concerned. Probably just because it looks cool to some. I think I recall it as having been mentioned and perhaps shown as a material for jewelry in one of the osprey books which, for those who are not heavy into researching and documenting, tend to be one of the "standards" for fleshing out appearances in the above said group.

And slightly back off topic again (sorry) :oops: ....

To be honest I am quite jealous of the Europeans as most of the history I enjoy literally happened in your backyards, and if searching the net is any indicator, re-enactment groups who are trying to be authentic and have an ease of access to historical pieces that are actual found in the areas and are in local museums, are much more common there than here.

Try and look at it this way: It's much more likely for those in the US to portray an accurate Native American historical re-enactment group, than it is in Europe thanks to the fact that the pertaining events actually occurred here. Whereas, the reverse is applied in Europe, when it comes to medieval and dark age history. We tend to rely on Hollywood, particularly at the start of our interests over here, only later finding out how horribly inaccurate it is. I suppose the SCA falls into that same category. Any how, I am rambling and probably failing to make my point, hehe. :lol:

Edit: to re-add the word "creative" that I had accidentally deleted prior to posting...that'll teach me to post when half awake. :oops:

[Muzzaguchi]

Okay so here is the Pliny passage - it mentions knotting the nets at gladiatorial figs and amber adorning all the paraphenalia of the games (presumably worked) and fitting for weapons etc. It also mentions the big lump of 13 pounds (5.9 kg). It could have been kept as a lump for the wow factor or worked into something big and magnificent, Pliny does not say.

Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 37.45-46

The distance from Carnuntum in Pannonia to the coasts of Germany from which amber is brought to us is some 600 miles, a fact which has been confirmed only recently. There is still living a Roman knight who was commissioned to procure amber by Julianus when the latter was in charge of a display of gladiators given by the Emperor Nero. This knight traversed both the trade-route and the coasts, and brought back so plentiful a supply that the nets used for keeping the beasts away from the parapet of the amphitheatre were knotted with pieces of amber. Moreover, the arms, biers and all the equipment used on one day, the display on each day being varied, had amber fittings. The heaviest lump that was brought by the knight to Rome weighed 13 pounds.

You could also check out A. Spekke The Ancient Amber Routes and the Geographical Discovery of the Eastern Baltic. Stockholm 1957.

Cheers

Murray

[Judy]

You all are so fantastic with this information. I truly am grateful to everyone for sharing what they know. Bless you allllllll. J