| Original Message: Re: Dating Southeast Asian beads |
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Hi again, Jamey, The pictures I've seen of the beads from the 400 BCE Sa Huynh site certainly look like the brick-red/burnt ochre Indo-Pacific beads, ie drawn beads. They definitely weren't the same as the glass beads found in north China at around that time, and so far to the best of my knowledge, no north Chinese artefacts from that early period have been found in the Mekong delta. I'll try to get someone to send me copies of the photos, so that I can post them here, though it may take a while. Of course, all these dates shift back and forth a bit as new evidence accumulates, but I'm wondering how certain the dates are for drawn bead-making at Arikamedu in India. I'm fascinated by the suggestion that the technology might actually have begun in SE Asia; I hadn't heard that before. I must say at first glance it seems improbable to me; all the evidence that I know of still points to drawn beads having been introduced along with other goods and ideas from India, though I also think it's quite likely that local people would have wanted to learn the technology themselves as soon as they saw how attractive and marketable those beads were. It was, as I said, a period of very rapid social and technological change. However, it used to be thought, too, that all the carnelian and agate found at early sites in SE Asia came from India or Afghanistan, but recent mineralogical tests on artefacts from a number of sites show that much of the material was locally mined. Bronze-making seems to have developed autonomously in the region also, and jadeite was being worked by highly-skilled craftsmen in Vietnam three thousand years before it reached China! So I guess it's best to wait and see. Re: Jatim in Korea. That's fascinating too, Jamey. I tracked down a summary on the internet - where could I find the whole paper? Best regards, Will All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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