| Original Message: Re: Origins |
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Dear Renaid, This topic has been approached many times here and elsewhere on the Net. As OFTEN happens with beads, issues of mistaken identity, and mistaken great age are rampant in misrepresentations of these sorts of beads. Although it is typical for people to think that old or very old beads come from the region where they are found, a great deal of the time they are imported. And ideas that popularly circulate about dating these beads suggest a time of origin that is much earlier than that of their actual manufacture. In the context of Africa, we have to sort local beads from imported beads. And we have to distinguish between early and late or recent beads. This is demanded because Africa has been a remarkable market for making and buying beads for a very long time. The beads you ask about are probably recovered from sites in Mali, located near the Niger River, near where there were old occupations (such as Jenne, Goa, and Timbuktu). The beads were made in India, and exported to Africa. They are in the temporal range of being about 1000 years old (+ or -). Ideas that they are "Neolithic" or "Sumerian" or from as early as "Roman" times, are exaggerated. I hope this helps. If you look to past posts, you may find these issues discussed at some length. Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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