and interpret their report as relating to the use of coarse Jet or
Kimmeridge Coal, a similar substance, for such a purpose. It was, however, turned by the lathe into ornaments by the
Britons,
perhaps even before the Romans subjugated this island, since large
rings turned out of solid pieces, for bracelets and anklets, are often
discovered amongst British remains. The round disks, cut out from the
centre of these rings, the refuse of the turner, often found in heaps
together in Dorsetshire, long puzzled antiquaries, who agreed to call
them " Kimmeridge Coal-money," and to regard them as a primitive
currency. Their true origin has been but lately ascertained.
The
Romans, however, learnt from their subjects how to convert this
elegant material into articles of decoration stamped with their own
more refined taste ; most interesting examples of which were discovered
in two stone cofiins found at some depth beneath the principal entrance
of S. Gereon, at Cologne, during the repairs going on there in 1846.
These are conjectured to have been a complete set of ornaments
belonging to a priestess of Cybele, and consist of two hair-bodkins,
with heads formed out of pine-cones, almonds, and trefoils, bracelets,
rings, a half-crotalon with a Medusa's head upon it,—in all 26 articles.
The
intagli in Jet however, antique and medieval, palmed off in such
quantities of late years upon English antiquaries, are nothing but
impudent modern forgeries, with no ancient precedents.
It is not altogether foreign from this subject to adduce a fact of which few are aware, that the use of Coal for
fuel can be traced back to the early times of Greece. Theophrastus,
treating of the Anthrax (16), has : " But those which are properly
named Coals, on account of the use made of them by the
luxurious, ignite and burn exactly like charcoal. They are found in
Liguria in the same region as the Amber ; and also in the territory of
Elis, on the mountain-road to Olympia ; and these are used by the
blacksmiths for fuel."
