Working with fire: Making glass beads at Amarna using methods from metallurgical scenes

Hodgkinson, Anna K.; Bertram, Miriam

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102488

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In fewer than five years, the bead furnaces have deteriorated significantly, leaving minimal archaeologically recoverable evidence. Relatedly, Hodgkinson and Bertram have demonstrated that beads of the type found in New Kingdom Egypt could have been manufactured in domestic workshops, using technology from metallurgy, leaving little to no trace in the archaeological record aside from the few glass rods such as have been found in domestic courtyards (Hodgkinson and Bertram 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To conclude this section, we would like to mention attempts to re-create ancient processes as a way to test hypotheses about ancient glass beads. Different sources of inspiration or guidance can be used in experimental archaeology research, such as ethnographic accounts, ancient texts or iconography, and archaeological remains (e.g., Hodgkinson and Bertram 2020;Krzyżanowska and Frankiewicz 2015). Replicating glass bead production processes helps understand not only the beads themselves, but also the archaeological signature of production waste or discards that might be identified in areas of primary and secondary manufacture.…”

Section: Glass Bead Typology and Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Glass Bead Typology and Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Elemental Analysis of Glass Beads

2022

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“…A question then arises whether cobalt blue chunks, OINE76 and 77, could have been used there for bead and pendant manufacture. As recent experiments prove, glass can be processed in rudimentary household fire pits where, with the help of blowpipes, temperatures high enough to produce glass beads are achievable (Hodgkinson & Bertram, 2020).…”

Section: Glass Bead-making In Lower Nubiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…This Special Issue includes the following papers, in order of appearance: Hodgkinson and Bertram (2020) present an experimental approach to the production of glass beads at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, during the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BCE). They draw on (indirect) iconographic evidence as well as excavation data to test whether such beads could be made in small-scale, non-specialised settings, which are expected to leave only ephemeral evidence in the archaeological record.…”

Section: Overview Of Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%