Indo-Pacific beads
Indo-Pacific beads are a type of mainly tube drawn glass beads which originated in the Indian subcontinent but are manufactured widely in Southeast Asia. These are usually 6mm in diameter, undecorated and come in various colours for example green, yellow, black, opaque red, etc.
Production technique
[edit]Glass beads are made using three methods, winding, drawing or moulding.
Drawn beads
[edit]This method of production involves creating a hollow cavity inside the molten glass by blowing air bubble inside using a 3mm tube. The round shape of the glass is then drawn into a tube and cooled, in India this is called Ladah method. One meter long tube is then broken off which is then broken into smaller bead lengths.[1]
Distribution
[edit]Indo Pacific beads traded widely from East Asia [2][3] to Africa.[1] They reached Europe in early medieval period.[4] They may have been the single most widely traded item in history.[5][6]
History
[edit]Scholars place the manufacturing of the Indo Pacific beads in South India and Southeast Asia between 500 and 200 BCE.[7][8][9][10][11][12]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Wood, Marilee (2012). "Interconnections: glass beads and trade in southern and eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean - 7th to 16th centuries AD". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. 47 (2): 248. doi:10.1080/0067270X.2012.680307. ISSN 0067-270X. S2CID 162211326.
- ^ Katsuhiko, Oga; Gupta, Sunil (2000-01-01). "The Far East, Southeast and South Asia: Indo-Pacific Beads from Yayoi Tombs as Indicators of Early Maritime Exchange". South Asian Studies. 16 (1): 73–88. doi:10.1080/02666030.2000.9628581. ISSN 0266-6030. S2CID 191984538.
- ^ Gupta, Sunil (1999–2000). "From Eastern Indian Ocean to the Yellow sea interaction sphere: Indo-Pacific beads in Yayoi Japan" (PDF). Purātattva. 30: 93–97.
- ^ Pion, Constantin; Gratuze, Bernard (2016-06-01). "Indo-Pacific glass beads from the Indian subcontinent in Early Merovingian graves (5th–6th century AD)". Archaeological Research in Asia. Asia's Maritime Bead Trade. 6: 51–64. doi:10.1016/j.ara.2016.02.005. ISSN 2352-2267.
- ^ Kanungo, A.K. 2004. Glass Beads in Ancient India and Furnace-Wound Beads at Purdalpur: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. Asian Perspectives 43(1):123–150.
- ^ Francis, Peter (1990). "Glass Beads in Asia Part Two. Indo-Pacific Beads". Asian Perspectives. 29 (1): 1–23. ISSN 0066-8435. JSTOR 42928207.
- ^ Wood, Marilee; Dussubieux, Laure; Robertshaw, Peter (2012-06-01). "The glass of chibuene, mozambique: New insights into early indian ocean trade". South African Archaeological Bulletin. 67: 59–74.
- ^ Wood, Marilee; Panighello, Serena; Orsega, Emilio F.; Robertshaw, Peter; van Elteren, Johannes T.; Crowther, Alison; Horton, Mark; Boivin, Nicole (2017). "Zanzibar and Indian Ocean trade in the first millennium CE: the glass bead evidence". Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 9 (5): 879–901. doi:10.1007/s12520-015-0310-z. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0029-7CD9-0. ISSN 1866-9557. S2CID 49586474.
- ^ Wood, Marilee (2012). "Interconnections: glass beads and trade in southern and eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean - 7th to 16th centuries AD". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. 47 (2): 248. doi:10.1080/0067270X.2012.680307. ISSN 0067-270X. S2CID 162211326.
- ^ Solheim, Wilhelm G.; FRANCIS, PETER (2003). "Review of ASIA'S MARITIME BEAD TRADE, 300 B.C. TO THE PRESENT, PETER FRANCIS, JR". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 76 (2 (285)): 129–132. ISSN 0126-7353. JSTOR 41493507.
- ^ Saju, M. T. (November 17, 2020). "'Indians made glass blown beads 2,500 years ago'". The Times of India. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
- ^ Carter, Alison Kyra (2016-06-01). "The Production and Exchange of Glass and Stone Beads in Southeast Asia from 500 BCE to the early second millennium CE: An assessment of the work of Peter Francis in light of recent research". Archaeological Research in Asia. Asia's Maritime Bead Trade. 6: 16–29. doi:10.1016/j.ara.2016.02.004. ISSN 2352-2267.