Bangles (front)

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These cannel coal bangles were found in 1990 in a hoard of late Bronze Age material at St Andrews in Fife. The hoard contained over 200 tools, weapons and ornaments as well as seven amber beads and these bangles. It was buried between 950 and 750 BC.

Producing bangles from cannel coal or shale involved flaking, sawing, carving, perforating and polishing. It required patience and skill to make the simple, smoothed bangles pictured here. Fragments of bangles are known from a number of Late Bronze Age settlement sites.

The only significant source of good quality jet occurs around Whitby in Yorkshire, although jet-related substances like cannel coal and lignite are known from several places in Scotland. Jet was used in the Bronze Age for high status objects.

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• Online ID: 000-180-000-886-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland Part 2
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• Ref: National Museums Scotland  
• Date: Between 950 and 750 BC
  
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  • Cowie, Trevor, O'Connor, Brendan and Proudfoot, Edwina. A Late Bronze Age hoard from St Andrews, Fife, Scotland: a preliminary report. In: Chevillot, C. and Coffin, A (eds). Le Bronze Atlantique, Actes du premier colloque, Beynac 1990, Beynac, 1991, pp 49 
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