I'm glad you wrote this, because it's a clear example of what has been happening repeatedly for twenty-four years now. When the eye beads from Mali came to California, there was a stir that these were "Roman beads." I urged caution, because—while I recognized a similarity—I felt the beads were not really identical. I said "if you saw the Roman Period eye beads in real life, along with the Mali beads, you could tell they are not the same." But as late as 1987, when Lois Dubin presented the world with The History of Beads, the misidentification of the Mali beads continued and then exploded.

The beads from Mali derive from the Islamic Period. And they are millefiori beads. The ancient beads shown here with amber have stratified eyes. They are earlier than the Mali beads, and may even predate the Roman Period. I will take a look at the exhibit catalogue, and see what they have to say about the pectorals. My expectation is that the glass beads are Mediterranean, dating from ca 600 to 400 BCE. In other words, Phoenician Period beads from Egypt or "Syria." If they are from later (say, the Roman Period), they are still not millefiori beads and not the same as the Mali beads.

Jamey