| Original Message: Early Venetian Seedbeads |
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These are also recovered in Mali from early occupation sites, but they are European beads. I would guess they are Venetian, from the late 16th to early 17th Cs. However I could not rule out a possible Dutch origin. They are about the size of modern pony beads, and were likewise shaped via the en masse heat-rounding method, that in the 20th C. became hot-tumbling (but was formerly called "ferrata"). The beads are a muddy (brownish) translucent violet. They are shown with two larger beads from Mali of the same vintage and origin (I believe), of similar violet glass. Clearly, these are related to the so-called "Nueva Cádiz" beads (except being monochromatic, and lacking an internal white layer. They are square in cross section and twisted. Because of their context—being recovered from early sites in Mali, these beads are often presumed to be "ancient"—and might be confused with either Indo-Pacific beads, or imported Middle Eastern beads (such as are also found in Mali). JDA. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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