A unique recipe for glass beads at Iron Age Sardis

Oxford: Bar International Serries 1242, 2004

This book is the outcome of my Ph.D. thesis. For the first time it lists the all archaeological, historical and medieval findings of glass beads in India and map them to different cultural periods. It demonstrates how such a micro study can help in the better understanding of India history and logically places this study in the broader context of study of humanity's past. The book details of the glass bead production technology, surviving traditional bead producing centers and the major users of the same. The field area taken was very broad with traditional producers studied in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as well as traditional users studied living in Orissa and Nagaland (for details see the content and the book). It concludes "Given that glass beads constitute an important antiquity, with a high survival rate, and a size and usage pattern that ensures wide dispersal, it is important to correlate archaeological evidence with current knowledge of production processes involved in bead production. In doing so we begin to understand how the whole life-cycle of beads, from the first stages of production to the various end-uses, traverses a spatially wide area, with possibility of ‘debitage-like’ deposits accumulating at various stages. However, while the beads, once produced, tend to ‘travel’ to distant places, their production requires a complex web of processes, techniques and skills which are likely to be available at only limited number of locations. Thus the dispersal is of the artifact, not of the whole web of production processes, implying that care has to be exercised before any site with bead debitage can be considered a bead ‘production centre’."

A cache of ~5000 glass beads was recovered from a small pit in an Iron Age layer at Sibudu Cave. The bead strings incorporated brownish-red, blue-green, blue and other colours of glass beads, some copper beads and also two perforated Conus ebraeus shells. A necklace of shell disc-beads interspersed with blue glass beads was also present. Sixteen of the glass beads were analysed chemically using LA-ICP-MS at the Field Museum, Chicago. The results indicate the beads originated in India. The Iron Age layers have calibrated radiocarbon dates between AD 1020 and 1160 and they incorporate Blackburn facies ceramics. These Blackburn associations seem too early for the types of beads represented and the cache of beads may have been hidden in the shelter in the 1500s or 1600s after the Blackburn occupation.

Asian Perspectives the Journal of Archaeology For Asia and the Pacific, 2004

The Elemental Analysis of Glass Beads Technology, Chronology and Exchange, 2022

Glass beads, both beautiful and portable, have been produced and traded globally for thousands of years. Modern archaeologists study these artifacts through sophisticated methods that analyze the glass composition, a process which can be utilized to trace bead usage through time and across regions. This book publishes open-access compositional data obtained from laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry, from a single analytical laboratory, providing a uniquely comparative data set. The geographic range includes studies of beads produced in Europe and traded widely across North America and beads from South and Southeast Asia traded around the Indian Ocean and beyond. The contributors provide new insight on the timing of interregional interactions, technologies of bead production and patterns of trade and exchange, using glass beads as a window to the past. This volume will be a key reference for glass researchers, archaeologists, and any scholars interested in material culture and exchange; it provides a wide range of case studies in the investigation and interpretation of glass bead composition, production and exchange since ancient times.

New Delhi: Research India Press, 2014

This is an updated Indian edition of my 2004 book on Glass Beads in Ancient India: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. It lists the all archaeological, historical and medieval findings of glass beads in India and map them to different cultural periods. It demonstrates how such a micro study can help in the better understanding of India history and logically places this study in the broader context of study of humanity's past. The book details of the glass bead production technology, surviving traditional bead producing centers and the major users of the same. The field area taken was very broad with traditional producers studied in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as well as traditional users studied living in Orissa and Nagaland (for details see the content and the book). It concludes "Given that glass beads constitute an important antiquity, with a high survival rate, and a size and usage pattern that ensures wide dispersal, it is important to correlate archaeological evidence with current knowledge of production processes involved in bead production. In doing so we begin to understand how the whole life-cycle of beads, from the first stages of production to the various end-uses, traverses a spatially wide area, with possibility of ‘debitage-like’ deposits accumulating at various stages. However, while the beads, once produced, tend to ‘travel’ to distant places, their production requires a complex web of processes, techniques and skills which are likely to be available at only limited number of locations. Thus the dispersal is of the artifact, not of the whole web of production processes, implying that care has to be exercised before any site with bead debitage can be considered a bead ‘production centre’."

Archaeometry, 2009

This paper reports the results of elemental analysis, using laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS), of 30 glass beads from an assemblage of beads excavated at medieval al-Basra, Morocco. Six chemical glass types are represented and their characteristics and geographical origins are discussed, with reference also to the techniques used to make the beads. The presence of numerous beads of lead–silica glasses is of particular interest. The morphological, technological and chemical analyses of the bead assemblage shed light on al-Basra's trade connections.

Boletín de la Sociedad Espańola de Cerámica y Vidrio, vol. 56, 2017

Archaeological excavation of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology (Polish Academy of Sciences, PAN) at several Iron Age sites located in West Poland and South Germany has allowed the recovery of an important set of coloured glass beads mostly decorated (6th-4th centuries BC). The present paper summarises the results obtained through the chemical and microstructural characterisation of such beads. The research was carried out by binocular microscope observations, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy disper-sive X-ray spectrometry and visible spectrophotometry. The main objective was to attain information on the production technology and conservation state of these beads. The results indicated that all them were produced with soda lime silicate glass, even though two groups can be separated: (i) beads containing high MgO percentages made from plant ashes as an alkaline source, and (ii) beads containing low MgO percentages made from natron as an alkaline source. As regards decorations, opaque white was obtained from tin oxide, turquoise blue from Cu 2+-ions, and opaque yellow from lead antimonate. Additionally, results showed microstructural and microcrystalline differences between some glass beads studied here and other glass beads from Mediterranean areas, dated in the same chronological period. This fact pointed out the valuable role given to these beads by Iron Age communities from Central Europe.

Archaeometry, 2021

The mobility of the Blemmyes between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea coast, and their skill in trading, are well attested in the literary sources and in the archaeological record. While they operated mainly in the Eastern Desert, their cemeteries, dated to the mid-fourth century CE, were located in the strategic region of the Dodekaschoinos of Lower Nubia. The personal adornments of the Blemmyes are mainly composed of beads, but the glass imports have not yet been scientifically studied. This paper presents the results of an analysis of thirty-four glass beads from Blemmyan cemeteries around Kalabsha. Compositional analyses using laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry has identified glass belonging to four groups. Numerous glass beads were made from low alumina-soda-lime glass (m-Na-Ca, m/v-Na-Ca), mainly associated with Egyptian production. Five beads were made of high-alumina glass. While three of them were produced in South India/Sri Lanka, mixed or recycled glass was the probable source of high alumina in another two beads. One bead was made of plant ash-soda glass. Results provide scientific evidence for the northernmost presence of South Indian/Sri Lankan glass beads in the Nile Valley and hint at the Blemmyan participation in broader regional exchange networks in Northeast Africa during a time of intensive overseas trade.

Please cite this article in press as: F. Koleini, et al., Towards refining the classification of glass trade beads imported into Southern Africa from the 8th to the 16th century AD, Journal of Cultural Heritage (2015), http://dx. Iron Age Botswana Raman spectroscopy X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) a b s t r a c t Tracing the origin of glass trade beads excavated at archaeological sites can contribute significantly to dating a site and reconstructing prehistoric trade routes. Wood developed a temporally sensitive bead sequence dating from the 8th to the 16th century AD for beads excavated at southern African sites that is commonly used by archaeologists to classify beads according to their morphology. In this study, we develop a multidisciplinary methodology to refine the classification of glass beads based on morphology alone. Glass trade beads excavated at 11 sites along the upper reaches of the Limpopo River in east-central Botswana are used as case study. The beads were visually classified according to their morphological properties (colour, size, etc.) and analysed with Raman spectroscopy and portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) of one bead showed that two types of glass were sintered together to form a recycled product, explaining the divergence of Raman spectra recorded on different zones. The study confirms the value of a morphological classification based on existing data sets as a first approach, but demonstrates that both Raman and XRF measurements can contribute to a more exact classification of glass beads imported into southern Africa from the East before the 17th century AD.