Post-15th century European glass beads in southern Africa: Composition and classification using pXRF and Raman spectroscopy

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 102183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahnaz Koleini ◽  
Philippe Colomban ◽  
Innocent Pikirayi
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
15Th Century

Glass Beads and Trade in the Western Indian Ocean

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilee Wood
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Plant Ash

The glass beads found at archaeological sites up and down the eastern coast of Africa between the 7th and 17th centuries ce bear witness to the trade that connected communities from all reaches of the Indian Ocean and beyond. Glass beads are small, relatively inexpensive to produce, and easy to transport as well as being colorful, often beautiful, and very durable. They were thus ideal trade items, especially when glass was a rare commodity that was produced in a limited number of places. Careful study of the glass beads traded into eastern Africa illuminate trade connections and patterns in the Western Indian Ocean that are not seen through a study of ceramics or glass vessels. In the earliest period, from the 7th to the mid-10th century, the East Coast (Kenya and Tanzania) first received beads made from a mineral soda glass from Sri Lanka (or possibly South India). The next to arrive were all made of a type of plant-ash glass that was probably produced in Iraq, but, because raw glass was widely traded, the beads were made in different places: perhaps the Persian Gulf/Iraq/Iran and even Thailand. In southern Africa in this period all beads were made of this same plant-ash glass but the beads—cut from drawn tubes—may have been finished locally. Similar beads of this glass have been found around the Old World including South and Southeast Asia, both East and West Africa, the Mediterranean, and as far north as Scandinavia—all date from the 8th into the mid-10th century. From the mid-10th to mid-13th century mineral soda beads from India were found in both the southern and northern regions of Africa’s east coast, but many of them appear to be from different areas of India and would likely have arrived by different routes. In the mid-13th to mid-15th century period, during which the gold trade out of southern Africa was at its peak, southern Africa turned away from Indian beads and accepted only ones from a region that has yet to be identified, while East Africa continued mainly with ones from South Asia. However, early in the 15th century a small number of Chinese beads appeared on the East Coast that might have arrived on ships from the fleet of the Chinese general Zheng He. The final period, the mid-15th to late 17th century, saw the two ends of the coast receiving the same beads for the first time, reflecting the growing dominance of European traders in the Indian Ocean. Although from their first arrival Europeans had attempted to trade their own beads in eastern Africa, populations there refused to accept them, forcing the outsiders to purchase beads in India, for which they were obliged to pay—often in silver.

MYTHS, GENDER, BIRDS, BEADS: A READING OF IRON AGE HILL SITES IN INTERIOR SOUTHERN AFRICA

Africa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin N. Wilmsen
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
Social Legitimacy ◽  
Archaeological Interpretation ◽  
Great Zimbabwe ◽  
Origin Myths ◽  
North Western

ABSTRACTHomologous origin myths concerning the Tsodilo Hills in north-western Botswana, Polombwe hill at the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika in Zambia and Kaphiri-Ntiwa hill in northern Malawi are examined. Parallels are drawn between the myths, where, in the process of creation, a primal pair in undifferentiated space and time passes through a series of liminal states, thereby bringing structure to the landscape and legitimacy to society in Iron Age Central and Southern Africa. These myths narrate the instituting of social legitimacy in their respective societies based on a resolution of the inherent contradiction between the concepts of authority and power, lineage and land. The structure of rights to possession of land is examined, and the text considers the role of sumptuary goods such as glass beads and metonymic signifiers such as birds within this structure. This study examines the prominence of hilltops as the residence of paranormal power and its association with human authority, and relates this to the archaeological interpretation of the Iron Age site Nqoma (Tsodilo Hills); this is compared with Bosutswe (eastern Botswana), Mapungubwe (Shashe-Limpopo basin), and the Shona Mwari myth recorded by Frobenius as used by Huffman in his analysis of Great Zimbabwe.

scholarly journals Shedding New Light on Ancient Glass Beads by Synchrotron, SEM-EDS, and Raman Spectroscopy Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seriwat Saminpanya ◽  
Chatree Saiyasombat ◽  
Nirawat Thammajak ◽  
Chanakarn Samrong ◽  
Sirilak Footrakul ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
Heavy Elements ◽  
Oxidation States ◽  
The West ◽  
Yellow Colour ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Ancient Glass ◽  
The Silk Road

Abstract The oxidation states of colouring elements and the pigments in ancient rare glasses have been investigated in this study. Synchrotron X-ray, SEM-EDS, and Raman techniques revealed that Cu2+plays a major role in blue and green glasses. The lead stannate pigment gives glasses a yellow colour. Copper and lead stannate can cause the green colour in glasses, and iron gives rise to the colour of black glasses. Microcomputed tomography reveals the distribution of the heavy elements, pigments, and inclusions in the glasses. The Dvaravati glasses in Southeast Asia may have been imported or technologically transferred to domestic manufacturers during trading on the Silk Road that connected the East and the West.

The glass beads of Kaitshàa and early Indian Ocean trade into the far interior of southern Africa

Antiquity ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (344) ◽  
pp. 361-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Denbow ◽  
Carla Klehm ◽  
Laure Dussubieux
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
Indian Ocean Trade ◽  
Image Position

Abstract

The Reliquary Bust of Saint Lambert from the Liège Cathedral, Belgium: Gemstones and Glass Beads Analysis by pXRF and Raman Spectroscopy

Archaeometry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-313
Author(s):  
Y. Bruni ◽  
F. Hatert ◽  
P. George ◽  
D. Strivay
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Glass Beads

scholarly journals Successfully Dating Rock Art in Southern Africa Using Improved Sampling Methods and New Characterization and Pretreatment Protocols

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Bonneau ◽  
R A Staff ◽  
T Higham ◽  
F Brock ◽  
D G Pearce ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Ftir Spectroscopy ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Sampling Methods ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Spectroscopy Analysis ◽  
Acid Base

AbstractWorldwide, dating rock art is difficult to achieve because of the frequent lack of datable material and the difficulty of removing contamination from samples. Our research aimed to select the paints that would be the most likely to be successfully radiocarbon dated and to estimate the quantity of paint needed depending on the nature of the paint and the weathering and alteration products associated with it. To achieve this aim, a two-step sampling strategy, coupled with a multi-instrument characterization (including SEM-EDS, Raman spectroscopy, and FTIR spectroscopy analysis) and a modified acid-base-acid (ABA) pretreatment, was created. In total, 41 samples were dated from 14 sites in three separate regions of southern Africa. These novel protocols ensure that the14C chronology produced was robust and could also be subsequently applied to different regions with possible variations in paint preparation, geology, weathering conditions, and contaminants.

Analysis by raman spectroscopy and XRF of glass beads from excavations in the harbor area of rio de janeiro, Brazil

2016 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 111-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.M.N. Ribeiro ◽  
R.P. Freitas ◽  
C. Calza ◽  
A.L.C. Oliveira ◽  
V.S. Felix ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
Harbor Area

Investigating glass beads and the funerary rituals of ancient Vaccaei culture (S. IV‐I BC) by Raman spectroscopy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Pinto ◽  
A.C. Prieto ◽  
J.C. Coria‐Noguera ◽  
C. Sanz‐Minguez ◽  
J. Souto
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
Funerary Rituals

Re-dating the Ingombe Ilede burials

Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (358) ◽  
pp. 1069-1077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Keech McIntosh ◽  
Brian M. Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Cotton Fabric ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Final Comment ◽  
Ams Dates

Several burials excavated during 1960 at Ingombe Ilede in southern Africa were accompanied by exceptional quantities of gold and glass beads, bronze trade wire and bangles. The burials were indirectly dated to the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries AD, prior to the arrival of the Portuguese on the East Coast of Africa. New AMS dates on cotton fabric from two of the burials now relocate them in the sixteenth century. This was a dynamic period when the Portuguese were establishing market settlements along the Zambezi, generating new demands for trade products from the interior, and establishing trade networks with the Mwene Mutapa confederacy. These new dates invite a reconsideration of Ingombe Ilede's relationship to Swahili and Portuguese trade in the middle Zambezi. This article is followed by four responses and a final comment by the authors.

scholarly journals MICRO-RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY OF DECORATED POTTERY OF THE DIAGUITA CULTURE FROM IV REGION, CHILE (9TH-15TH CENTURY AD)

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 2619-2621 ◽  
Author(s):  
F OSORIO ◽  
G DÍAZ FLEMING ◽  
U MARTINEZ ◽  
M.M CAMPOS-VALLETTE ◽  
E CLAVIJO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Micro Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
15Th Century
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