Bangles (back)

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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 St Andrews hoard is important because of the number of items it contained, the presence of large numbers of certain items such as pins, and the inclusion of some exotic pieces. In addition, because the hoard was examined very soon after its discovery, many fragments of organic material were preserved.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-180-000-887-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland Part 2
  Project description   View all records in project
• 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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