Handmade, small, sterling silver set, genuine, brown coloured, ammonite fossil pendant. Length 30mm, width 19mm.
Ammonites were free-swimming molluscs of the ancient oceans, living around the same time that the dinosaurs walked the Earth and disappearing during the same extinction event. They came in a range of sizes, from tiny species only a couple of centimetres across, to large ones reaching over two metres in diameter. The animal would have lived in the last and largest of a chain of spiralled chambers. Filling these chambers with fluid or gas allowed the ammonite to sink like a stone to avoid predators, though ammonite shells with toothmarks on them have been found, evidence that it didn't always work. Fossilised shells are usually, but not always, beautiful spirals. Ammonites are now extinct. Their name is derived from The Egyptian God Ammon. Ammon's sacred animal was a ram, and an ammonite looks like a ram's horn. Pliny the Elder called ammonites the Horns of Ammon. Many ammonites can be found at Whitby. They were supposed to be snakes which were turned to stone by St. Hilda (614-680). Often snake heads were carved on the ammonites before selling them to tourists. Three ammonites are on the shield of the town of Whitby, complete with snake heads! In the Western Isles, Scotland, ammonites are known as crampstones and were once used to cure the cramp in cows, using by soaking the fossils in water and using that to wash the cow. In Germany, they called ammonites dragon stones, and put them in a milk pail to bring a cow back to milk. Ammonites were called snakestones. They were used as protection against snakebites In America, the Blackfoot called ammonites insikim or buffalo stones because they look like sleeping bison. They were used in spiritual ceremonies. A man could find a buffalo stone on the prairie if it called out to him. In India, ammonites found in the valley of the Gandaki River in Nepal and northern India are called Saligrams. They are considered the direct symbol of Lord Vishnu, as one of Vishnu's avatars (incarnations) was stone (Sri Saligram). Saligrams have markings called 'chakras', resembling the discus held in one of the six hands of the god Vishnu. Vishnu's chakra is a Hindu symbol of absolute completeness, with the eight spokes indicating the eightfold path of deliverance. The radial chakra markings in saligrams are actually the ribs of the ammonites. The stones are kept in temples, monasteries and households as natural symbols of Vishnu and water in which they have been bathed is drunk daily. In addition, saligrams are used in marriages, funerals and house-warmings. If a dying person sips water in which a saligram has been steeped, it is believed that they will be freed from all sins and will reach the heavenly abode of Vishnu. You are not allowed to buy a saligram as they are priceless, although they can be supplied if a donation is made. Saligrams are mentioned in Sanskrit texts dating back to the second century BC. Ammonites disappeared during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, when the dinosaurs and belemnites became extinct.
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