Jet is a type of lignite, the lowest rank of coal, and is a gemstone. Unlike many gemstones, jet is not a mineral, but is rather a mineraloid. It is derived from wood that has changed under extreme pressure. The English noun jet derives from the French word for the same material, jaiet (modern French jais), ultimately referring to the ancient town of Gagae. Jet is either black or dark brown, but may contain pyrite inclusions which are of brassy colour and metallic lustre. The adjective "jet-black", meaning as dark a black as possible, derives from this material.
Origin Jet is a product of decomposition of wood from millions of years ago, commonly the wood of trees of the family Araucariaceae. Jet is found in two forms, hard and soft. Hard jet is the result of carbon compression and salt water; soft jet may be the result of carbon compression and fresh water. Despite the name they both occupy the same area of the Mohs scale with the difference being that soft jet is more likely to crack when exposed to changes in temperature.
Properties Jet is around 75% carbon and 12% oxygen, with sulfur and hydrogen making up most of the balance. Other elements are found at trace level and the exact ratios varying with the source; for example, Spanish jet contains more sulfur than Whitby jet. Jet has a Mohs hardness ranging between 2.5 and 4 and a specific gravity of 1.30 to 1.34. The refractive index of jet is about 1.66. The touch of a red-hot needle should cause jet to emit an odour similar to that of burning coal. Jet may induce an electric charge like that of amber when rubbed. Jet is very easily cut using carving tools, but small pieces tend to break off, making it difficult to create fine details. It therefore takes an experienced lapidarist to execute more elaborate carvings.
Location
England
The jet found at Whitby, in England, is the "Jet Rock" unit of the Mulgrave Shale Member, which is part of the Whitby Mudstone Formation. This jet deposit was formed approximately 181 million years ago, during the Toarcian age of the Early Jurassic epoch. Whitby Jet is the fossilized wood from species similar to the extant Chilean pine (Araucaria araucana). The deposit extends throughout North York Moors National Park. Jet has also been found in Kimmeridge shale seams in Dorset.
France Jet was mined from a number of areas of France including Montjardin and Roquevaire. Raw jet was also imported from Spain. In the 18th century there was a jet working industry based around Sainte-Colombe-sur-l'Hers and La Bastide-sur-l'Hers but this declined with the start of the 19th. An 1871 plan to import raw French jet into Whitby was unsuccessful due to its poor quality.
Spain The jet found in Asturias, the biggest deposit in northern Spain, is of Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) age, about 155 million years old. Asturian jet is a perhydrous coal that suffered an anomalous coalification process and presents great material stability over long periods of time. At the end of the Middle Ages, the trade of religious objects and amulets made of jet reached great development in Santiago de Compostela, with sales to pilgrims traveling the Camino de Santiago. However, the deposits were in Asturias, where simple objects such as beads and rosary beads were also made. Santiago de Compostela was the main sales point and the location of the workshops that produced artistic objects. Jet has also been extracted in the area of Utrillas, Gargallo, and Montalbán in the province of Teruel, although it is of lower quality than that from Asturias.
United States Native American Navajo and Pueblo tribes of New Mexico were using regionally mined jet for jewelry and the ornamentation of weapons when early Spanish explorers reached the area in the 1500s. Today these jet deposits are known as Acoma jet, for the Acoma Pueblo. Enormous coal deposits characterize the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and this geology is closely related to jet deposits mined in the Henry Mountains of Utah and the Front Range of El Paso County, Colorado.
Other locations Jet is also commercialized in Poland and near Erzurum in Turkey, where it is known as oltu stone and is used to make prayer beads.
History
The earliest known worked jet object is a 10,000 BC model of a botfly larva, from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, found among the Venuses of Petersfels. Finds from Chalcolithic Europe are fairly uncommon but are more frequent from the bronze age. Jet has been used in Britain since the Neolithic period It continued in use in Britain through the Bronze Age where it was used for necklace beads. Jet necklaces following the plate and spacer design may have been based on Gold lunula. During the Iron Age jet went out of fashion until the early 3rd century AD in Roman Britain. The end of Roman Britain marked the end of jet's ancient popularity. Early archaeologists (particularly Victorian) often failed to distinguish between jet and other jet-like materials In particular in southern Britain the material described as jet was often Kimmeridge Shale. and some artifacts use more than one jet-like material. For example, the Pen y Bonc necklace combines two or three jet pieces with other dark material.
Roman use Whitby jet was a popular material for jewellery in Roman Britain from the 3rd century onward. There is no evidence for Roman jet working in Whitby itself, rather it was transferred to Eboracum (modern York) where considerable evidence for jet production has been found. The collection of jet at this time was based on beachcombing rather than quarrying. It was used in rings, hair pins, beads, bracelets, bangles, necklaces, and pendants, many of which can be seen in the Yorkshire Museum. Jet rings tended to follow the styles of existing metal rings although there were exceptions. Jet pendants were carved cameo style with Medusa head being a popular theme. Stylistic similarities with jet items found in the Rhineland, and lack of any evidence for local manufacture, suggest that Eboracum-produced items were exported to that area. One item that has been found around the Rhine but not in Britain are jet bracelets that feature grooves with gold inserts.
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