On the thread of time with the glass beads.

Glass beads are mentioned among the first discoveries of glass objects dated to the 2^nd millennium b.C in the Eastern Mediterranean. Despite their small dimensions they can be full of meaning and represent power, rituality, beauty. They raise admiration for their variegated colours and shapes and curiosity for the complex work at the basis of the production of these tiny and often elaborate marvels.

The Corning Museum of Glass (NY - USA) owns a rich collection of glass beads belonging transversely to different historic epochs and world regions. Thus, it built up a gorgeous exhibition, entitled “Life on a String: 35 Centuries of the Glass Bead”, starting today, 18 May 2013 and open up to 5 January 2014. It will include also objects coming from other institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Also pieces connected to the production will be displayed, such as a loom for beading and molds used to make powdered glass bodom beads. The program for children and families is also very interesting since, as usual for this Museum, it will include the observation of glassmaking and the possibility of producing a small jewel or artwork.

The glass beads, being colourful, opaque and elaborate in production, have always drawn the attention of archaeometrists. Several studies were conducted on glass beads, especially of Chinese and African provenance. Among the techniques used, the portable XRF and the micro-Raman spectroscopy are more and more being used, the latter due to its features of non destructiveness and sometimes portability, but above all thanks to the information that it gives regarding the nature of glass, opacifiers and pigments at the same time.  

Have a look to this limited selection of papers, and, if you can, enjoy the exhibition!

To learn more:

*http://www.cmog.org/collection/exhibitions/life-string-35-centuries-glass-bead

* AV Gennett, with contributions by T Oldknow: Glass Beads: Selections from the Corning Museum of Glass, 2013.

Just few ideas to learn more "Archaeometrically speaking":

* HX Zhao, QH Li, S Liu, FX Gan, Characterization of microcrystals in some ancient glass beads from china by means of confocal Raman microspectroscopy, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 44, 4, 643–649, 2013.

* JRN Peake and IC Freestone, Cross-craft interactions between metal and glass working: slag additions to early Anglo-Saxon red glass, Proc. SPIE 8422, Integrated Approaches to the Study of Historical Glass, 842204 (September 21, 2012); doi:10.1117/12.973765.

* A Tournié, LC Prinsloo, Ph Colomban, Raman classification of glass beads excavated on Mapungubwe hill and K2, two archaeological sites in South Africa, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 43, 4, 532–542, 2012.

* P Robertshaw, M Wood, E Melchiorre, RS Popelka-Filcoff, MD Glascock, Southern African glass beads: chemistry, glass sources and patterns of trade, Journal of Archaeological Science 37,8, 1898–1912, 2010.

* D Sokaras, A G. Karydas, A Oikonomou, N Zacharias, K Beltsios, V Kantarelou, Combined elemental analysis of ancient glass beads by means of ion beam, portable XRF, and EPMA techniques, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 395, 7, 2199-2209, 2009.

* LC Prinsloo and Ph Colomban, A Raman spectroscopic study of the Mapungubwe oblates: glass trade beads excavated at an Iron Age archaeological site in South Africa, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 39: 79–90, 2008.

* N Welter, U Schüssler, W Kiefer, Characterisation of inorganic pigments in ancient glass beads by means of Raman microspectroscopy, microprobe analysis and X-ray diffractometry, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 38: 113–121, 2007.