Natural Science in Archaeology

10.6 Shells, Coral, Fossils, and Fossil Bone 237
“korallion” (Latin “corallum”). Silicified coral is a smooth chert-like rock which,
if heat-treated, makes good flaking tools. Agatized fossil coral is chalcedony that
was used to make gems. White coral artifacts have been associated with ancient
Egyptian contexts of the seventh to sixth century BCE. Precious red coral from
the western Mediterranean was imported to Egypt during the Ptolemaic and Coptic
Periods. Pipe coral also occurs on the shores of the Red Sea and was used in
Predynastic times (Lucas 1989).
In the Mediterranean, coral occurs in a wide range of forms, which vary in association
with different light levels, water currents, and competition for space. Red
coral or precious coral (Corallium rubrum) is the best known, most valued, and most
collected of the Mediterranean corals. Its often intense red color is durable, and the
coral can be polished to a glassy shine. The earliest known use was in Mesopotamia
about 3000 BCE (Cooke 1987). It also has been found in ancient Egyptian burials.
A red coral was one of the gemstones sought by Pueblo Indians.
Potential sources of prehistoric coral in the central Mediterranean include coral
reefs, death assemblages on beaches, and fossil deposits. Historically and recently
recorded examples of coral reefs lie scattered along most of the central Mediterranean
coasts, especially in areas where islands occur, although not apparently along
the west coast of the Adriatic Sea (Skeates 1993).
A symbolic value appears to have been ascribed to coral during the Neolithic and
Chalcolithic Periods. The distinctive red color of the coral seems to have been especially
prized, for red pieces appear to have been selected almost exclusively. Red
coral was not unique in this respect, for powdered red ochre was also regularly used
at this time, in and around the Alpine region, to sprinkle over and around human
remains in ritual deposits and as a pigment painted onto pebbles, pottery, and cave
walls. Coral was transported over a distance of at least 300 km across the western
part of the Alps (Skeates 1993).
To the Romans, the red color of coral led to its association with blood. Ovid
recounts the tale that coral originated from the blood that flowed from the head
of Medusa (Metamorphoses 4.741ff). The ancients were uncertain of its composition,
and coral was variously described as a plant and a stone. Pliny was the first
to describe it at length (N.H. 32.11.464; 37.59.665). It was carved into cameos and
small statuettes. Medically, it was believed to have powers of fertility and was used
to treat bleeding.
Coral was used by the Celts from the fifth to the third centuries BCE to decorate
the hilts of weapons and as an inlay in vessels. Coral continued to be used during the
Middle Ages as a medicine and for beads and amulets. It was fashioned into handles
for knives and spoons, because it was widely believed that coral would indicate the
presence of poison in food (Tescione 1965).
Fossils. Fossils have been used since the Upper Paleolithic in necklaces and
pendants. In southwest Ireland fossils have been found as funereal adornments in a
Neolithic site (3000–2500 BCE). Brachiopods, cephalopods, gastropods, bryozoans,
and crinoids from a local limestone all were found in the tomb complex (Wyse and
Connolly 2002). Diatomite is a friable, fine-grained, sedimentary rock resulting
from the accumulation of the opaline skeletons of diatoms. These fossilized remains