Research Catalog

Title

Glass bead trade in Northeast Africa : the evidence from Meroitic and post-Meroitic Nubia / Joanna Then-Obłuska, with Barbara Wagner.

Author

Then-Obłuska, Joanna,

Publication

Warsaw : Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology ; Warszawa : University of Warsaw Press, [2019]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Wagner, Barbara,

Description

315 pages : color illustrations, maps; 30 cm

Summary

Strings of colorful glass beads were a popular commodity traded throughout ancient Nubia in the earlier half of the first millennium AD. Combining macroscopic examination with laboratory analyses, the author breaks new ground in Nubian studies, establishing diagnostic markers for a study of trading markets and broader economic trends in Meroitic and post-Meroitic Nubia.00Archaeometric results, lucidly presented and discussed, identify the origins of the glass from which the beads under investigation were made. The demonstrated South Indian/Sri Lankan provenance of some of the ready-made beads from Nubian burial contexts and a reconstruction of their distribution patterns in Northeast Africa is the first undisputed proof of contacts between Nubia and the Red Sea coast. Reaching beyond that, it shows Nubia?s involvement in the Asian maritime trade, whether directly or indirectly, during a period of intensive interchanges between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.

Series Statement

PAM monograph series ; 10

Uniform Title

PAM monograph series (Uniwersytet Warszawski. Centrum Archeologii Śródziemnomorskiej im. Kazimierza Michałowskiego) ; 10.

Subjects

• Glass beads
• Africa > Nubia
• Antiquities
• Africa, Northeast > Commerce > History
• Glass > Analysis
• History
• Glass beads > Africa, Northeast > Catalogs
• Northeast Africa
• Glass beads > Nubia > Catalogs
• Commerce
• Nubia > Antiquities > Catalogs
• Catalogs

Genre/Form

• Catalogs.
• History.

Note

• "Strings of colorful glass beads were a popular commodity traded throughout ancient Nubia in the earlier half of the first millennium AD. Combining macroscopic examination with laboratory analyses, the author breaks new ground in Nubian studies, establishing diagnostic markers for a study of trading markets and broader economic trends in Meroitic and post-Meroitic Nubia. Archaeometric results, lucidly presented and discussed, identify the origins of the glass from which the beads under investigation were made. The demonstrated South Indian/Sri Lankan provenance of some of the ready-made beads from Nubian burial contexts and a reconstruction of their distribution patterns in Northeast Africa is the first undisputed proof of contacts between Nubia and the Red Sea coast. Reaching beyond that, it shows Nubia's involvement in the Asian maritime trade, whether directly or indirectly, during a period of intensive interchanges between the 4th and 6th centuries AD."--Front flap.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (page 300-311).

Contents

Nubia in the Meroitic and post-Meroitic periods -- Beads in Meroitic and post-Meroitic cultures: iconographic and contextual overview -- Collections and archaeological contexts -- Morphological description of glass samples -- Chemistry of glass beads -- Discussion of the glass groups and beads produced -- Trade contacts in Northeast Africa -- Conclusions -- Catalog -- Parallels.

ISBN

• 9788323538998
• 8323538999

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries