Hello Anne
Your bead appears to be a drawn European bead from the 1900s that has been modified by "cooking". Beads like these are supposed to imitate "aggrey" beads.
Other examples of beads said to have served similar purposes are Keta Awuazi beads (this being their Krobo name) - powder glass beads made by the Yoruba in Nigeria, before WWII, in horizontal moulds (longitudinal seams are often visible), and Awuazi beads (Krobo name) - powder glass beads made in Ghana (1920s) whose colour is said to originate from glass of broken cold cream jars (some of these beads were decorated with longitudinal stripes). Another member of this family are the so-called Tehe Koli beads (Krobo name),stone koli, also made in pre WWII Nigeria - these are manufactured from fragments of drawn European beads and powder glass.
You may like to check out the article on "aggrey" beads - link inserted below.
Hope this helps.
Evelyn
I've just noticed that the images appear in the following sequence, from top:
1 - Keta Awuazi
2 - Tehe Koli
3 - Awuazi
Jim Lankton, O. Akin Ige & Thilo Rehren have recently published a paper titled "Early Primary Glass Production in Southern Nigeria" [published in Journal of African Archaeology, Vol. 4(1)]. Fragments of glass working crucibles, of ritual glass objects and of drawn glass beads found in Ile-Ife (Nigeria) were analysed. A very unusual high-lime, high-alumina type of glass was found in the crucibles, which matched the composition of certain dark blue drawn beads and some of the blue and green glass fragments also found in the aje ileke (kori stones). Because similar high-lime, high-alumina glasses have been found in West Africa only and glasses of a similar composition are not known from Europe, the Middle East or Asia, the glass cannot have been imported from said geographical areas. Above authors interpret their findings "to propose the primary manufacture of high-lime, high-alumina glass in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 2nd millennium CE, with glass production centered in southern Nigeria and quite possibly near Ile-Ife". Their results not only provide the first strong evidence for early glass production in West Africa, but they also indicate that certain drawn beads that had formerly been ascribed to European or Middle Eastern origins were indeed manufactured locally, in southern Nigeria. One of the beads depicted in the paper shows an opaque, drawn so-called "segi" bead.
Cheers
Evelyn
Here is a link that shows similar beads with coments.....I don't know enough about this to give an accurate response but maybe this would help?
Thomas
Hello Anne,
The bead appears to be a drawn bead. (Distinguishing between wound and drawn beads is one of the most basic and essential skills a bead collector should have, for identification purposes, and to distinguish one bead group from another.)
The color I see on my screen is a rather rich opaque-looking teal blue. Is this accurate? The color range for old-time kori beads (what may popularly be called "true aggrey beads") is a more grayish, or pale violet-blue. These beads are somewhat translucent, but not really transparent, and tend to be somewhat dichroic. Sometimes they have opaque brick-red stripes (about 4 of them). The more your beads tend to be opaque and teal-blue, the less likely it is they will be old kori beads.
As I have written many times, practically any cylindrical blue bead, in Ghana, will be called a "koli" bead. In Nigeria, they are called "segi" beads. Segi beads taken to Ghana become "koli" beads. Koli beads taken to Nigeria become "segi" beads. Nevertheless, there are some beads that are most likely native to Ghana, and some that are native to Nigeria. Some are imported from abroad, and some are local. Some are quite old, and some are still or recently made. Some have been locally-altered tro resemble other types. There are a LOT of variables to juggle.
Your bead is most likely not an old-time kori or Aggrey bead. Depending upon its context, it is most likely either a koli bead or a segi bead.
Jamey
