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Glass Bead Trade in Northeast Africa, The Evidence from Meroitic and post-Meroitic Nubia

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Default Title
ISBN: 978-83-235-3899-8
Description: 315 pages (29,5x20,5cm), softcover, phots., drawings
Condition: new
Weight: 1005g.

 

Joanna Then-Obluska with Barbara Wagner, Glass Bead Trade in Northeast Africa, The Evidence from Meroitic and Post-Meroitic Nubia, PAM Monograph Series 10, Warsaw 2019



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.



Acknowledgements                                                             
Introduction                                                                 
Chapter 1: Nubia in the Meroitic and post-Meroitic periods                    
Chapter 2: Beads in Meroitic and post-Meroitic cultures: iconographic and contextual overview                                            
Chapter 3: Collections and archaeological contexts                           
Chapter 4: Morphological description of glass samples                         
        4.1 Introduction                                                      
        4.2 Techniques, provenance, parallels, and dating                     
        4.3 Conclusions                                                      
Chapter 5: Chemistry of glass beads                                           
        5.1 Introduction                                                      
        5.2 Method of analysis ( by Barbara Wagner)                            
        5.3 Results                                                           
        5.4 Discussion of provenance of glass groups and subgroups          
        5.5 Conclusions                                                       
Chapter 6: Discussion of the glass groups and beads produced                
Chapter 7: Trade contacts in Northeast Africa                              
        7.1 Introduction                                                    
        7.2 Trade hubs, routes and operators in Northeast Africa            
        7.3 The Nubian trade                                                
        7.4 The bead trade                                                  
Chapter 8: Conclusions                                                      
Catalog                                                                       
        The SJE collection                                                    
        The SNM collection                                                    
        The MAP collection
        The MNW collection                                                    
Parallels                                                                     
Abbreviations and references                                                  
List of figures, tables and plates