Callaïs are ancient green-blue precious stones used for making pendants and beads by western European cultures of the later Neolithic and early Bronze Age. "Callaïs" is a generic term that includes turquoise and variscite, but not jade.^[1][2][3] It was described by Pliny the Elder as being paler than lapis lazuli.^[4] Callaïs objects have been found in Neolithic tombs from the mid-5th millennium BC in the Carnac region of western France.^[2][1]

Callaïs deposits are thought to have been widely distributed throughout the Iberian peninsula, and transported from Andalusia, Castile, and Catalonia to Brittany, Normandy, and the Paris Basin.^[2]

References

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