callaïs

{{Short description|Ancient precious stones used for making beads in the Neolithic and Bronze age}}

File:Callais Neolithique Musée Vannes 19082012 05.jpg. The necklace now located in the Musée d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Vannes.]]

Callaïs is the generic name for ancient green-blue precious stones used for making pendants and beads by western European cultures of the later Neolithic and early Bronze Age. The term includes turquoise and variscite but not jade.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1128026690 |title=La parure en callaïs du néolithique européen |date=2019 |others=G. Querré, Serge Cassen, Emmanuel Vigier |isbn=978-1-78969-281-5 |location=Oxford |pages=85, 423 |oclc=1128026690}}{{Cite book |last1=Cassen |first1=Serge |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1129585280 |title=A taste for green : a global perspective on ancient jade, turquoise and variscite exchange |last2=Petrequin |first2=Pierre |last3=Guirec |first3=Querre |last4=Grimaud |first4=Valentin |last5=Rodriguez-Rellan |first5=Carlos |date=2019 |others=Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán, Ben A. Nelson, Ramón Fábregas Valcarce |isbn=978-1-78925-277-4 |location=Oxford |pages=122–132 |chapter=Spaces and signs for the transfer of jade and callaïs in the Neolithic of Western Europe |oclc=1129585280}}{{Cite book |last1=Rodriguez-Rellan |first1=Carlos |title=A Taste for Green: A global perspective on ancient jade, turquoise and variscite exchange |last2=Fábregas Valcarce |first2=Ramón |last3=Faustino Carvalho |first3=António |publisher=Oxbow Books |others=Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán, Ben A. Nelson, and Ramón Fábregas Valcarce |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-78925-277-4 |location=Oxford, England |pages=77–96 |chapter=From the green belt: an appraisal on the circulation of Western Iberian variscite |oclc=1129585280}} "Callaïs" was described by Pliny the Elder as being paler than lapis lazuli.{{Cite book |last=Pliny the Elder |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/37*.html#56 |title=Naturalis Historia, liber xxxvii |pages=lvi 151}} Callaïs objects have been found in Neolithic tombs from the mid-5th millennium BC in the Carnac region of western France.

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.