These look very much like beads I know came out of Afghanistan. They have been called "goatherd beads." The story (that I do not believe for a second) suggests that Afghan goatherds, whiling away the time, pick up rocks from streams, that they think are interesting—and they convert them to beads.

Of course, whomever made up the story did not think about the fact that a goatherd would probably have no skills or equipment for drilling hard stones to make them become beads.

They were most-likely made in India. It is possible they are nice river stones. They do have much in-common with stones that might be water-worn. (I collect occasional river stones, and beach rocks, myself.)

Once again, it is helpful to understand that the movement of beads, old and recent, has truly become global. That old Afghan beads can be found in West Africa would no longer be news.

Jamey

I obtained beads like this about twenty years ago. They were said to be from Chad. Modern drilling on the bead holes. I wondered at the time why anyone would drill these agates, as is. They would make a very heavy strand to wear.

I'm doubtful about these having much age. I saw quite large supplies of similar beads in the tourist markets in western Yunnan when I was there recently. One of the characteristics I noticed was that in any batch there always seemed to be some beads that were drilled at an angle to where you would expect the perforation to be on, say, a genuinely ancient bead. It struck me that someone was trying too hard to make them look "primitive." There are several like that on the strand that's illustrated here.

I wasn't interested in the agates, but I did buy a couple of similarly rough turquoise beads, often drilled in the same way. They're dyed turquoise, I'm sure. The seller had but a ridiculous starting price on them, claiming they were ancient Tibetan, but brought the price down by 95% in less than a minute!

Cheers,

Will

When I suspect something is being mass-produced in China, I check alibaba.

For around $100 per ton, you can get a large variety of river stones in the same size range as your beads. See example in photo. These were from China. Not sure if they offer free shipping -LOL!

You can also get drilled stones - the picture shows some that are drilled through the thickness. They appear to be rather huge "beads"! I'm sure you could get the same vendor to drill the other way. This vendor was in Burma (Myanmar).

The African traders are selling all sorts of beads that are mass - produced in China, and have been for some time now, so caveat emptor!

Made similarly? Sure.

The difference is in what stones they began with. The beads in-question are VERY SIMILAR to the beads I mentioned. The subsequent beads are probably or definitely not really "the same"—even if they are drilled polished rocks.

Since I have been reporting on the phenomenon of Middle Eastern beads and Chinese beads having been taken to Africa in recent years, this does not surprise me as a concept. I certainly accept that.

If I made a search of my color transparencies going back to 1983 I can probably find a photo of the first group of these beads I was exposed to.

JDA.

May or may not be "True" but 20 years ago I used to see the strands of large Stone beads, most of which had a vague or distinct "Eye" and looked Agate-like. Some of the beads had the "eye" pattern, some were plain and the colors ranged from white, splotchy white, browns, light to darker carnelian orange (heated?) to dark or dark and light banded. At the time the Traders said they were from Zaire, but I have no idea if that was true. Some of these beads were huge, and drilled rather poorly, the largest ones might have two holes if they missed connecting. But, what was surprising was that there were a few really Nice "eye beads" amongst the strands (I'm wearing one now), that looked like "Goat's Eye" Agates- even though Goat's pupils are square (I used to have Dairy Goats but that's another story)...I always figured these beads DID come from either India, Nepal or maybe the Middle-East? I'll dig some up and post..

Found only a few and not the ones I was looking for- but will post more when I do:

The necklace I wear everyday is the one with the green beads next to the Stone. There are three stones shown. Note the surface "crescent" marks on the second "eye" agate...wouldn't this denote AGE (although faked of course on Dzi beads, etc., no reason to fake here)....
Sorry these are strung on old "creations"...but you can get an idea and see the hole in several:

Imgur Album: https://imgur.com/a/DBqNAVb

Anne