Finest Carnelian, 18ct Gold earrings. Carnelian was bow-drilled for beads seven thousand years ago in neolithic Baluchistan west of the Indus River. It was favoured in Mesopotamia and by the ancient Romans in the cutting of seals, for hot wax does not stick to Carnelian.
Carnelian is of the Chalcedony crystal family and is basically a form of very fine-grained Quartz. Historically it has been mined in many different locations; the Carnelian of the above earrings was mined in the early 1900s from ancient mines on the west of the Indian sub-continent, in what is now the state of Gujerat, from which consistently high grade Carnelian has been sourced for thousands of years.
The above beads were also cut in Gujerat at the time of their extraction, in the traditional “barrel” shape, specifically to be trekked across India into the remote valleys of the far north-east, for trade with particular tribal groups of Nagaland for whom they were items of prestige, wealth and distinction, worn in graduated long twine-threaded strands.
The above perfect little old Carnelian beads were from such a bead necklace.