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Written sources document the pursuit of trade between India and the Mediterranean world during the early Middle Ages. These traded goods, notably spices, perfume, and luxury fabrics, rarely leave material remains as a result of their perishable nature. Two types of archaeological finds dated from the fifth and sixth centuries have helped fill some of the gaps in the documentary sources. The first includes small beads of green-colored glass found in graves in which the beads appear to have been sewn onto pieces of clothing. As their chemical composition and the specific method of their manufacture reveal, these beads were produced in southern India and Sri Lanka and are known termed Indo-Pacific. The second type of archaeological find are garnets, which are found throughout western Europe at the start of the Merovingian period, decorating weapons, jewelry, and clothing accessories, most often in the cloisonné style. Recent chemical analysis of the garnets and their specific inclusion has been conducted with precision laboratory techniques. This analysis demonstrates that they came from deposits in India (mainly Rajasthan) and Sri Lanka, at least until around 600. For historical and economic reasons that remain unclear, the emporia in southern India and Sri Lanka at this time ceased to export the Indo-Pacific beads, and later garnets, to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean basin.

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