Unwinding the Beads : novel approaches to the production, use and life-histories of glass beads

Abstract

The tangibility, mobility, and attractiveness of glass beads make highly personal objects that often bore significant meaning for those who made, wore, and used them. This thesis presents novel methodologies for the interdisciplinary archaeological and scientific study of glass beads, and new ways of approaching their meaning, object biography, and value. In particular, techniques for conducting and interpreting use-wear analysis on glass, which has been undertaken very rarely to date, are developed via a combination of laboratory-based techniques and the wearing of replica beads by voluntary participants. The replication of glass beads using traditional technologies and wood-fired, hand-made furnaces, provides insights into the relationship between making, understanding, and using glass beads. It also raises questions about past archaeological approaches to bead typology, and about the archaeological visibility (or lack thereof) of furnaces. The methods are applied to two distinct archaeological case studies. In the first, glass beads from burial contexts in Iron Age Abruzzo, Italy, are examined in terms of their colour, meaning, sensory properties, and value. In the second, glass beads from 1st millennium BCE to 1st millennium CE sites in the Wadi al-Ajal, Libyan Sahara, are examined from the perspective of use-wear analysis and chemical composition. These case studies are then examined in the broader context of the archaeological interpretation of glass beads, and new ways forward are suggested for the field. The results illustrate the intertwined relationship – and perpetual dialogue – between manufacturing technology, use, and symbolic meaning. The holistic approach employed sheds light on the need to consider this dialectic in the study of glass beads, and archaeological artefacts more widely.