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Chemical Composition Of Late 18th- And 19th-Century Glass Beads From Western North America: Clues To Sourcing Beads, Laurie E. Burgess, Laure Dussubieux

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

The Sullivans Island glass bead collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History contains over 56,000 beads which date from the late 18th to the late 19th century. Excavated in the 1930s from a site on the Columbia River in the Plateau region of North America, this collection contains examples of most known bead varieties for this time period. Many of the beads conform to varieties that have been attributed to Bohemia, Venice, and China-three of the main bead-producing centers for this time period. One hundred and twenty-four beads were subjected to Laser-Ablation Inductively-Coupled Mass-Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis at the …

In Memoriam: Mary Elizabeth Good, 1930-2007, Marvin T. Smith

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Bead researcher Mary Elizabeth Good died December 18, 2007. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, she was 77 years old. Mary Elizabeth was well-known and respected as an early researcher of trade beads in North America. Her first publication, "Guebert Site: An 18th century Historic Kaskaskia Indian Village in Randolph County, Illinois" (1972), is considered a classic in bead studies. Mary Elizabeth was active in the Society of Bead Researchers, serving as Chair of the Publications Committee from 1989 to 1993, and as President of the Society from 1994 to 1996. The bead community has lost an important member.

World War I Turkish Prisoner-Of-War Beadwork, Jane A. Kimball

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Drawing on the rich tradition of textile crafts in the Ottoman Empire, Turkish soldiers incarcerated in British prison camps in the Middle East during and immediately after World War I made a variety of beadwork items to relieve the boredom of their prolonged imprisonment and to barter or sell for food and other amenities. Best known are the bead crochet snakes and lizards, but the prisoners also used loomed and netting techniques to produce necklaces, belts, purses, and other small items.

An Archaeological Approach To Understanding The Meaning Of Beads Using The Example Of Korean National Treasure 634, A Bead From A 5th/6th-Century Royal Silla Tomb, James W. Lankton, Marjorie Bernbaum

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

An ancient bead is a document from the past—a message in a bottle—written in some lost symbolic language. Archaeologists try to understand that language by integrating scientific and technological approaches with the social, economic, political, and symbolic/ religious context in which the bead was found. As an example, we use Korean National Treasure 634 (NT634), a dark blue glass bead adorned with mosaic decorations of a bird, a flowering tree, and a human face, found in a 5th-6th century Korean tomb. This bead suggests its meaning by how and where it was made, and what its images may represent.

Western Indian (Mewar) Chalcolithic Beads With Special Reference To Balathal, Alok Kumar Kanungo, Virendra Nath Misra, Vasant Shinde

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

During the last few years, Indian archaeologists have concentrated their efforts on the investigation of sites of the 3rd to 2nd millennia B.C. in the Mewar region of western India. Unfortunately, most of the excavations have been focused on understanding the cultural sequence, settlement patterns, architecture, and pottery at the sites and have neglected the study of such important artifact categories as beads. As no final reports have been published and the excavations have been carried out by different agencies, reconstructing the bead culture of this area is very difficult. We know quite a bit about the beads of the …

Captions And Color Plates (V. 19, 2007)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Eighteenth-Century Glass Beads From The English Slaving Fort At Bunce Island, Sierra Leone, Karlis Karklins

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

While countless tons of European glass beads flowed into West Africa over the centuries, there is still relatively little information concerning what specific nations were importing over time. It was therefore of great interest to learn about two collections of beads surface collected at the site of a British slaving fort that operated on Bunce Island in the Sierra Leone estuary of coastal Sierra Leone from the late 17th to the early 19th century. Although it is impossible to assign the beads to a specific period in the fort's history, it is clear that they are of 18th-century origin and …

Beads: Journal Of The Society Of Bead Researchers - Volume 19 (Complete)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Reviews And End Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

International Bead & Beadwork Conference, Jamey D. Allen and Valerie Hector (eds.) (2007), reviewed by Karlis Karklins

Navajo Beadwork: Architectures of Light, by Ellen K. Moore (2003), reviewed by Kate C. Duncan

Made of Thunder, Made of Glass: American Indian Beadwork of the Northeast, by Gerry Biron (2006), reviewed by Dolores Elliott

Lubāna ezera mitrāja Neolīta dzintars (Neolithic Amber of Lake Lubāns Wetlands), by Ilze B. Loze (2008), reviewed by Aleksandar Palavestra

The Bead Goes On, by Koos van Brakel (2006), reviewed by Karlis Karklins

Captions And Color Plates (V. 18, 2006)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Reviews And End Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

The Art of Beadwork: Historic Inspiration, Contemporary Design, by Valerie Hector (2005), reviewed by Alice Scherer

Beads of Borneo, by Heidi Munan (2005), reviewed by Hwei-Fe'n Cheah.

Beads: Journal Of The Society Of Bead Researchers - Volume 18 (Complete)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Classification And Nomenclature Of Beads And Pendants, Horace C. Beck

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

The year 2006 marks the 80th anniversary of the presentation of a "Classification and Nomenclature of Beads and Pendants" by Horace C. Beck to the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1926. It was subsequently published in the society's journal Archaeologia in 1928 (vol. 77, pp. 1-76). While it is somewhat out of date, it nevertheless remains a classic in its field and is still the only comprehensive work that deals with the classification of beads of complex shapes and forms. Seeing the value of this work, George Shumway reprinted it in 1973. This edition is now out of print. …

Table Of Contents (V. 18, 2006)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Necklaces Used In The Santería Of Cuba, Lourdes S. Domínguez

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

This article examines the necklaces used in the Afro-Cuban Rule of Orisha, more commonly known as Santería. This religion, created by African slaves brought to Cuba starting in the 16th century, combines aspects of Yoruba orisha worship and Spanish Catholicism. It allowed African religious beliefs and practices to survive despite the imposition of Catholic doctrine. One of the outcomes of this amalgamation is the practice of associating individual orishas (deities) with certain Catholic saints. Each orisha is represented by specific necklaces that incorporate particular bead forms, colors, and numbers.

Elemental Analyses Of North American Glass Trade Beads, R. G.V. Hancock

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Although European-made glass trade beads can be sorted into bead varieties and studied in that manner on the basis of physical attributes, much more information can be obtained about them by means of chemical analysis. Such analyses produce chemical fingerprints that may be compared and grouped. Bead varieties that have matching chemistries were made using the same ingredients that probably came from the same sources, suggesting that they were made in a specific manufacturing center and probably during the same approximate time period. Using this information may help to establish with which European nationals specific indigenous people were dealing and …

Die Perle: A 1920s German Trade Journal, Anita Von Kahler Gumpert, Karlis Karklins

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Though short lived, the German trade journal, Die Perle, contains a wealth of information concerning the European bead and jewelry industry of the 1920s. Short articles provide insight into new machinery and apparatus for producing beads, natural and artificial materials for the production of beads and other ornaments, fashion trends, market reports, and numerous other topics. As well, there are several departments which deal with specific themes such as technical questions and sources of supplies. As the journals are in German, English summaries are provided for a representative sample of the articles to give the reader an idea of their …

Beads: Journal Of The Society Of Bead Researchers - Volume 17 (Complete)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents (V. 17, 2005)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Thirteen-Hundred-Year-Old Bead Adornments From Baar, Canton Zug, Switzerland, Katharina Müller

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

In the year 2000, an Early Medieval (7th-century) cemetery containing more than 200 burials with rich grave goods was discovered in Baar, Canton Zug, Switzerland. Thanks to the painstaking methods used in the excavation and recording of the 2,985 glass, amber, coral, and amethyst beads found with the female burials, it was possible to reconstruct the necklaces and sewn-on appliqués they were part of. Comparisons with mosaic depictions of famous women—such as the Empress Theodora in San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy—suggest that the people of Baar imitated southern Alpine Byzantine bead jewelry fashion.

Reviews And End Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Ornaments from the Past: Bead Studies after Beck, Ian C. Glover , Helen Hughes Brock, and Julian Henderson (eds.) (2003), reviewed by Joan Eppen.

Late 19th- And Early 20th-Century Manufacture Of Drawn Glass Tubing For Glass Beads, Lester A. Ross

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Late 19th- and early 20th-century archaeological sites often contain machine-made drawn glass beads with unique shapes and perforations. Little information exists documenting when these beads were initially manufactured. Through an examination of hundreds of U.S. patents, it appears that the mechanized production of drawn beads could have occurred as early as the late 19th-century, but more likely, they were not mass produced until the end of World War I, after the invention of the Danner process for mechanically drawing glass tubing. Machine-made drawn beads with multiple sides and/or shaped perforations also appear to have been produced by the late-19th century, …

Captions And Color Plates (V. 17, 2005)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Captions And Color Plates

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

The Levin Catalogue Of Mid-19th-Century Beads, Karlis Karklins

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

The Levin Catalogue is composed of two similar collections of glass and stone beads assembled by Moses Lewin Levin, a London bead merchant whose business operated from 1830 to 1913. A total of 621 beads of 128 different varieties makes up the collections which can be dated to the period 1851-1869. Although the beads are recorded as having been used in the African trade, several have counterparts at North American sites, thereby making the catalogue a potentially valuable research tool for those involved in the study of North American trade beads as well.

Precious Red Coral: Markets And Meanings, Susan J. Torntore

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Beads and other ornamental items made of precious red coral have been utilized by various cultures worldwide for thousands of years. Depending on its properties and market context, this highly valued material has meant different things to different peoples through time. The current industry—based in Torre del Greco in southern Italy—reflects past traditions but also incorporates new ideas into the production of beads and jewelry for the three principal world markets: fashion, ethnic, and tourist. These reflect the historic trade and use of red coral beads in several West African, European, and American cultural settings. This article describes the Torrese …

Incised Dentalium Shell Beads In The Plateau Culture Area, Roderick Sprague

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Whole dentalium and segments of dentalium shell have been used as beads in the Northwest Coast and interior Plateau culture areas both prehistorically and ethnographically. Incised whole shells, and no more than five known examples of incised segments, have been recovered from the Plateau, limited to archaeological contexts. A review of the reported incising clearly shows the use of design elements typical of the Plateau Culture Area as often also used on bone, antler, wood, and historic copper in addition to dentalium. The Asotin site (45-AS-9), one of the few well-dated Plateau burial sites with incised beads indicates that this …