Ancient beads

El uso del azabache, como elemento de adorno personal y amuleto, se remonta a las primeras sociedades prehistóricas. Esta materia prima es relativamente escasa en la naturaleza y se convierte, desde fechas muy tempranas, en un objeto apreciado, tanto desde el punto de ornamental como simbólico. A diferencia de otros lugares, en la península ibérica es una de las materias primas menos conocidas y estudiadas.

En este trabajo haremos un análisis en torno al aprovechamiento y uso del azabache, y otros materiales afines, a través de una primera aproximación y clasificación, nunca hecha hasta el momento, de las tipologías localizadas, en la península ibérica en época romana y tardoantigua.
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The use of jet as personal jewellery and amulet dates back to the earliest prehistoric societies.  This raw material is relatively scarce in nature and has been cherished both for its ornamental and symbolic characteristics. Although jet has gained research interest worldwide, it still remains one of the least studied raw materials across the Iberian Peninsula.In this work we will make an analysis around the use
of  jet  and  «jet-like»,  through  a  first  approximation  and  classification,  never  done  before, of the typologies located at the Iberian Peninsula in Roman times and Late Antiquity.

The late Epipaleolithic Natufian Culture of the Levant (ca. 15,000–11,700 BP) is renowned for its rich bone industry. A specific type of bone bead, the gazelle phalanx bead, is abundant in several sites but nearly absent in others. In this study, phalanx bone beads from the current excavations at the Natufian site of el-Wad Terrace (Mount Carmel, Israel) were studied through use-wear analysis, integrated in an experimental program to reconstruct their production sequence, mode of suspension, and use. The experimental program included controlled experiments of abrasion, polishing, and drilling, replication experiments, and suspension experiments producing an extensive database of wear patterns. Based on the experimental program, the sequence of operations was inferred by detecting the intersection of the traces. A repetitive four-step procedure is reconstructed, including skinning the bone, scraping it and making a transversal cut with flint tools, then drilling the bone using the pump drill technique, followed by abrasion against limestone with water to create a smooth and polished bone surface. Reddish powder found on ten beads was chemically analyzed through SEM EDX indicating an additional step of coloring with ochre. Traces on the drilled holes indicate the use of organic fibers for suspension and a unique type of use-wear also showed the contact against leather material indicating that the Natufians utilized gazelle phalanx beads in their daily clothing. A well-established craft is therefore revealed, displaying the artistic capability to express the Natufian identity in a complex society where rules had to be portrayed to others so that organization and structure could maintain the (sedentary) community intact.

The discovery of 16 Conus apex beads from the Early Bronze Age II site of Tel Bareqet in central Israel, prompted research concerning this type of personal ornament. Theses ornaments were made of Indo-Pacific Conus shells, and they were discovered in numerous third millennium BCE sites in the Levant, the Sinai Desert, as well as in Mesopotamia, suggesting long-range contacts. The existence of a workshop of such artifacts in Oman might point to their actual origin. Ethnographic analogies, coupled with the size and distribution of these artifacts, suggest that these were prestige items.

The goal of this study is to examine whether analysis of typological, structural and production procedures of beads, can assist in the dating and description of an archaeological site.
The corpus of beads found at the Tel Azekah archeological site by the Lautenschläger-Azekah expedition, during the first four seasons of excavation was assembled. The beads were dated to the period between the Early Bronze Age and Hellenistic period. Most of the assemblage was discovered by means of wet and dry sieving and sorting.
The identification of the twenty-five raw materials from which the beads were made of was achieved by chemical and optical means, as well as by the interpretation of literary, historical and scientific sources.
The provenances of most of the said raw materials were traced to Egypt and Mesopotamia, while a few may have come from Jordan, India (the Indus Valley), Cyprus, The land of Israel, and even from the area surrounding Tel Azeka.
In addition, the technologies used to produce the beads were identified mainly in Egypt and the Indus Valley. A beads manufacturing workshop was not found on the site and its surroundings, and therefore, with the exception of the bone beads which could have been produced at Tel As-Safi / Gat, the obvious conclusion is that the beads have reached the site through commerce, or social connections.
Given the large variety of raw materials from which the 222 beads were made, as well as their shapes and production techniques, it may be deducted that the population that lived at Tel-Azekah had a high and well established political, social and economic status. Moreover, the settlement was located on top of a mound, dominating a central junction of commercial routes, and in the area of other important settlements, such as Gat, Ekron, Gezer, and Lachish, and therefore was likely to have had direct and indirect social and economic ties with the surrounding peoples, such as the Philistines and the Phoenicians, whose influence is noticed in the beads assemblage.
In most cases, beads cannot be used as a single dating element of certain periods, but rather as an additional one, but certain types of beads may serve as a characteristic of a certain period or culture.

Περιδέραιο (όρμος) με δεκαοκτώ χάνδρες από σάρδιο και σαρδόνυχα (ΜΔ 2286). Προέρχεται από το νεκροταφείο των τύμβων στη θέση Καρίτσα Γαβριά της περιοχής του μακεδονικού Ολύμπου, στη νότια Πιερία. Βρέθηκε στον τάφο Α του τύμβου 15, γύρω από τον λαιμό της νεκρής. Οι χάνδρες (ψήφοι) είναι σχήματος σφαιρικού, πιεσμένου σφαιρικού ή κυρτού κυλινδρικού. Οι οπές εξάρτησής τους είναι κυκλικής διατομής και βρίσκονται στον κατά ύψος άξονα τους. Το σάρδιο και ο σαρδόνυχας από τα οποία είναι κατασκευασμένες, είναι πολύτιμοι λίθοι, στις αποχρώσεις του λευκού, του καστανού, του κίτρινου και του κιτρινέρυθρου. Τα περιδέραια (όρμοι) χρησιμοποιούνταν ως κοσμήματα από τις γυναίκες με τον ίδιο τρόπο όπως και σήμερα, τα φορούσαν γύρω από τον λαιμό. Επίσης χρησιμοποιούνταν και ως ταφικά κτερίσματα, τα οποία συνόδευαν τη νεκρή στην τελευταία της κατοικία. Το συγκεκριμένο χρονολογείται στην πρώιμη εποχή του Σιδήρου (μεταξύ 1100 και 900 π.Χ.). Διαστάσεις: μήκος περιδεραίου: 0,14 μ., διάμετρος χανδρών: 0,007 - 0,0145μ., ύψος χανδρών: 0,0033 μ.- 0,0093 μ.

Necklace of eighteen sard and sardonyx beads (ΜΔ 2286). Derived from the tumulus cemetery in Karitsa Gavria of the Macedonian Olympus region, in southern Pieria. It was found in grave A of tumulus 15, around the neck of the deceased. The beads are globular, compressed globular or curved cylindrical. The hanging holes are of circular cross section and are located on the vertical axis of the beads. The sard and the sardonyx from which they are crafted, are precious stones in the shades of white, brown, yellow and yellowish red. Necklaces (ormoi) were a type of ornament used by women in the same way as nowadays, wearing them around the neck. They were also used as burial offerings, which accompanied the dead in her last home. This particular one dates back to the early Iron Age (between 1100 and 900 B.C.). Dimensions: length of the necklace: 0.14 m., diameter of the beads: 0.007-0.145 m., height of the beads: 0.0033-0.0093 m.

The Jebel al-Ma'taradh and its surroundings contain exceptional deposits of lithic raw materials, including flint and chert, but especially chalcedony, agate, car-nelian, and chrysoprase. These deposits were intensively exploited during the Neolithic, and some of the artefacts produced entered the trade network that included settlements on the coast and inland, sometimes as far as 300 km. During earlier periods, probably as early as the Pleistocene, only flint was used. Between the sixth and the fourth millennia, carnelian and agate were exploited to make beads, which are found in the necropolises and settlements of the UAE. K E Y W O R D S carnelian, chalcedony, Neolithic, Oman peninsula, ornament

A study of the ways in which households combined to form larger cooperative social formations, how such formations were actualized and maintained through communal and collective action, and how these were expressed at varying spatial scales in the archaeological record of pueblos and puebloan landscapes in southern New Mexico and western Texas.  Addresses the problems of recognizing the manner in which suprahousehold collectivities are manifested in the archaeological record.

Almost 650 beads and pendants, most of them of glass and faience, were excavated over two seasons in 2014 and 2015 at Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. This material, coming from 19 trenches variously located within the Hellenistic to early Byzantine site, has contributed some new data, enhancing the Berenike bead typology. Highlights included a Bes pendant of glass from a Hellenistic context and early Roman mosaic glass beads with face patterns. Other materials of which the ornaments were made included marine mollusk shells, ostrich eggshell, and a variety of stone and minerals. Of greatest interest were beads coming from early Roman graves, of an older man (the order of the threaded beads could be traced) and of animals (neck collars). Beads threaded on fragments of string, most probably of Indo-Pacific make, came from the early Roman rubbish dump.

This section of the bibliography deals with beadmaking technology, ancient and modern, around the world. To facilitate searches, the entries have been assigned to the following categories: Glass; Faience; Metal; Stone; Shell; Eggshell; Bone, Ivory, Antler, and Horn; Seeds and Nuts; and Mixed Materials.

This section covers all the countries of South and Central America, including Mexico, and all the Caribbean islands. For lack of a better place, Bermuda has been included herein as well. See also the two specialized theme bibliographies and the General/Miscellaneous bibliography as they may also contain reports dealing with these countries.

The countries covered in this section include: Australia, Easter Island, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, as well as Hawai’i. See also the two specialized theme bibliographies and the General/Miscellaneous bibliography as they also contain reports dealing with these countries.

The countries covered in this section include: China, Japan, Korea (North and South), Mongolia, eastern Russia (Siberia), Taiwan, and Tibet. See also the two specialized theme bibliographies and the General/Miscellaneous bibliography as they also contain reports dealing with these countries.

The countries covered in this section include: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. See also the two specialized theme bibliographies and the General/Miscellaneous bibliography as they also contain reports dealing with these countries.

The countries covered in this section include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. See also the two specialized theme bibliographies and the General/Miscellaneous bibliography as they also contain reports dealing with these countries.