A dark-brown raw material of organic sapropel carbon with a dull shine, similar to jet or lignite, occurring in Bohemia and Moravia; it was worked, primarily by the Celts (6th-1st cents. BC), for jewel rings. Unworked and half-worked pieces in workshop finds, e.g. on the Heuneburg (6th cent.) and in the oppidum of Manching (2nd/1st cents. BC) show that jewellery was produced by cutting and carving and by turning on a lathe.
Crafts, trade; Celtic archaeology; Jewellery
Bibliography
O. Rochna, Zur Herkunft der Manchinger Sapropelit-Ring…