calcareous (calcitic) endoskeleton of a belemnoid

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The item is not a manufactured product but a natural fossil. As a materia medica or amulet, the paper notes that typical use for prescriptions 'would have necessitated grinding, soaking, or boiling the object' (p. 243). However, this specific specimen was personalized by etching a two-line Kufic inscription onto its surface using a tool, rather than applying ink (p. 241).

Evidence

"The object, measuring 61 mm long and 10.5 mm in diameter, is brownish-beige and identified as the calcareous (calcitic) endoskeleton of a belemnoid, a fossil mollusk related to extant squids."

Remarks

The fossil is identified as Belemnitella mucronata, weathering out from Upper Cretaceous (Upper Campanian) chalk. The study demonstrates that this northern European fossil was imported to Tiberias, likely during the first wave of Viking-Abbasid trade (c. 800-890s CE). It was found in a 9th or early 10th-century CE constructional fill (L647) north of a courtyard (p. 239). The inscription reads 'Yazīd ibn Yaʿqqūb' (p. 241). Although it lacks a threading hole, the authors postulate it was worn as a pendant using a leather strap (p. 243).