Indian Glass Beads in Northeast Africa Between the First and Sixth Centuries CE

Then-Obłuska, Joanna

doi:10.1007/978-981-16-3656-1_22

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In Late Antiquity, 400–600 CE, Northeast Africa had interactions with the West as evidenced by beads made of Western European or Western African garnet (Then‐Obłuska et al, 2021). On the other hand, the distribution of the South Indian glass bead imports found in the Red Sea ports, Eastern Desert, and Nubian Nile Valley sites (400–600 CE) testifies to the increased contacts with the East (e.g., Then‐Obłuska, 2021; Then‐Obłuska & Dussubieux, 2021, 2023; Then‐Obłuska & Wagner, 2019). The same trade links must have resulted also in the presence of a diamond‐drilled, facetted Ca‐ and Mn‐poor pyrope bead in Lower Nubia at that time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four millennia of garnet trade in Northeast Africa—chemical analysis of ancient and Late Antiquity beads from Lower Nubian sites

Gilg,

Then‐Obłuska,

Dussubieux

2024

Archaeometry

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Raman spectroscopy and laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry were used to characterize the chemical composition of 34 red garnet beads from Lower Nubian sites, dated between about 3200 BCE and 600 CE. All beads from the A‐Group to the Meroitic period feature a similar calcium‐poor almandine composition (69%–78% almandine, 15%–22% pyrope, 2%–6% grossular, 3%–9% spessartine), which differs from other calcium‐poor almandine garnet types, sourced mostly from Indian deposits in Antiquity. The Nubian beads constitute a new garnet type, named “cluster I”, featuring high yttrium (180 to 1205 ppm), moderately low chromium (13–70 ppm), and high scandium (119–213 ppm) concentrations. Their compositions match with previous and two new analyses from two alluvial garnet deposits, Wadi El‐Haraz and Wadi Abu Dom, near the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Upper Nubia, about 670 km as the crow flies from the Lower Nubian graves. Garnet trade between the Bayuda desert and Lower Nubia sites, and possibly even Egypt, flourished for almost four millennia. Northeastern Africa is the cradle for the oldest use of a gemstone that is harder than quartz—the red almandine garnet.A Post‐Meroitic bead, the youngest in the assembly, displays an unusual faceting, a diamond tipped drill hole, excellent polish, distinct short‐ and long‐prismatic colorless mineral inclusions, and a calcium‐ and manganese‐poor pyrope composition. This suggests that it was not of a local, Nubian, production, but imported, most probably from a South Asian site.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four millennia of garnet trade in Northeast Africa—chemical analysis of ancient and Late Antiquity beads from Lower Nubian sites

Gilg,

Then‐Obłuska,

Dussubieux

2024

Archaeometry

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“…Wood's system has been widely adopted in this region (e.g., Bandama et al 2018;Tournié et al 2012;Antonites 2014;Koleini et al 2017). Robust glass bead classification strategies developed for specific regions and time periods are essential to place new findings in a chronological context and to accurately infer the circulation of objects between regions as further exemplified by Calmer (1977), Guido (1978) and Then-Obłuska (2021).…”

Section: Glass Bead Typology and Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Elemental Analysis of Glass Beads

2022

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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.

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Teardrops at the Lake: Chemistry of New Kingdom to Makuria Glass Beads and Pendants Between the First and Second Nile Cataracts

Then-Obłuska

Dussubieux

2021

Afr Archaeol Rev

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International expeditions extensively excavated Lower Nubia (between the First and Second Nile Cataracts) before it was submerged under the waters of Lake Nasser and Lake Nubia. The expeditions concentrated on monumental architecture and cemeteries, including sites at Qustul and Serra East, where the New Kingdom, and Napatan, Meroitic, Nobadian, and Makurian-period elites and common people were buried, ca. 1400 BC–AD 1400. Although the finds abound in adornments, including bead imports from Egypt and South India/Sri Lanka, only a few traces of local glass bead-making have been recorded in Nubia so far. Based on results of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis of 76 glass beads, pendants, and chunks from Qustul and Serra East contexts, dated between the New Kingdom and the Makuria Kingdom periods, this paper discusses the composition and provenance of two types of plant-ash soda-lime (v-Na-Ca) glass, two types of mineral soda-lime glass (m-Na-Ca), and two types of mineral-soda-high alumina (m-Na-Al) glass. It also presents the remains of a probable local glass bead-making workshop dated to the period of intensive long-distance bead trade in Northeast Africa, AD 400–600.

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Indian Glass Beads in Northeast Africa Between the First and Sixth Centuries CE

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

Four millennia of garnet trade in Northeast Africa—chemical analysis of ancient and Late Antiquity beads from Lower Nubian sites

Four millennia of garnet trade in Northeast Africa—chemical analysis of ancient and Late Antiquity beads from Lower Nubian sites

The Elemental Analysis of Glass Beads

Teardrops at the Lake: Chemistry of New Kingdom to Makuria Glass Beads and Pendants Between the First and Second Nile Cataracts

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