Bronze Age Bling: Black Stone, Amber and Shells

The necklace as it was found in the young woman's burial during the excavation founded by Persimmon Homes Ltd (Anglia).

A 4,200-year-old necklace made of alternating black and white disc-shaped beads has helped British researchers devise a new, minimally micro-destructive approach for the identification of shell species in archaeological artifacts.

Mollusc shells appear to have been among the first durable materials used for personal ornaments and building tools, but their often degraded condition makes it hard to identify the shell species taxa with traditional morphological analysis.

Beatrice Demarchi, of York University’s department of Archaeology, Julie Wilson, of York University’s departments of Chemistry and Mathematics, and colleagues used statistical pattern recognition methods and amino acid racemisation analysis (a technique previously adopted used for dating rocks and fossil molluscs) to distinguish shells taxonomically.

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/bronze-age-bling-black-ston-amber-and-shells-140619.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1