Ancient glass beads as a window to the ancient world 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. 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. List of Illustrations List of Tables Foreword Chapter 1 Contextualizing this volume in the field of glass bead studies Laure Dussubieux and Heather Walder Chapter 2 Glass beads and human pasts Alison Carter, Elliot H. Blair, Carla Klehm and Lee M. Panich Part I: European Trade Beads Chapter 3 Characterizing glass recipes for distinctive polychrome glass bead types in Ontario, Canada Alicia Hawkins and Heather Walder Chapter 4 Simple blue (IIa40) beads from 17th century Mission Santa Catalina de Guale: Dating, origins, and elemental composition Elliot H. Blair and Laure Dussubieux Chapter 5 Glass trade bead analysis at Upper Hampton Farm (40RH41): A case study for 17th and 18th century Non-Cherokee habitation in East Tennessee Valley Jessica Dalton-Carriger and Elliot H. Blair Chapter 6 Compositional analysis of compound drawn white glass beads from colonial California: Implications for chronology and dispersal Lee M. Panich, Laure Dussubieux, Tsim D. Schneider, Christopher Canzonieri, Irenne Zwierlein, Christopher Zimmer and Michelle Zimmer Chapter 7 Glass beads and evidence for early “pre-contact” trade in Northwestern Alaska 137 Thomas R. Fenn, Laure Dussubieux, Heather Walder and Douglas D. Anderson Part II: Glass Beads in South and Southeast Asia Chapter 8 The exchange of beads in Central Thailand in the protohistoric period: Glass objects from Phromthin Tai Alison Carter, Laure Dussubieux, Thomas R. Fenn, Thanik Lertcharnrit and T.O. Pryce Chapter 9 Shifting patterns of glass bead cargo of 15th – 17th century Philippines shipwrecks Jennifer Craig and Laure Dussubieux Chapter 10 Sources of glass beads from the High Himalayas: 1200 BCE-CE 650 Mark Aldenderfer and Laure Dussubieux Chapter 11 Inland from the sea: Rethinking the value of mineral soda alumina drawn glass beads from medieval North India Mudit Trivedi and Laure Dussubieux Part III: Glass Beads in Africa and Western Indian Ocean Chapter 12 Beads from the lowlands of Northwestern Ethiopia Lindsey Trombetta, Laure Dussubieux, Agazi Negash, Daniel Dalmas, Metasebia Endalamaw, Mulugeta Feseha, Lawrence Todd and John Kappelman Chapter 13 Inland glass beads in Northeast Tanzania, 8th-17th centuries CE Jonathan R. Walz and Laure Dussubieux Chapter 14 Glass beads at Unguja Ukuu in the late 1st millennium CE: Results of the 2018 excavation in Zanzibar Akshay Sarathi, Jonathan R. Walz and Laure Dussubieux Chapter 15 Chemical analysis of precolonial Indian Ocean glass beads found in the southern African interior: linking global objects to local and regional change Carla Klehm and Laure Dussubieux Chapter 16 Morphology and elemental composition: provenancing glass beads from 12th – 13th century Mayotte 323 Marilee Wood, Laure Dussubieux, Mudit Trivedi and Martial Pauly Part IV: Glass Beads in the Middle-East Chapter 17 Elemental composition of glass beads from the eastern Mediterranean region: Chronology and provenance of material from Tel Anafa, Israel Katherine A. Larson and Laure Dussubieux Chapter 18 South Asian beads at the site of Kish, Iraq Laure Dussubieux Chapter 19 Technology, chronology, and exchange examined through glass beads Heather Walder and Laure Dussubieux Appendix Supplementary Materials