Soda-lime glass trade across the Eurasian Steppe during the 4th to 5th century CE: Evidence from a Xianbei cemetery in Inner Mongolia

Abstract

A batch of glass beads, including silver-in-glass beads and monochrome beads from the Chenwugou cemetery in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, China was analysed using optical microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDS), Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (LA-ICP-AES), and Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Based on their compositions, the silver-in plant ash glass samples are chemically very homogenous and possibly from Iran/Central Asia, if they were not made locally in China. The four monochrome beads are all individually different, with three plant-ash glasses and one natron glass bead thought to be from the southeastern Mediterranean. The silver-in-glass beads were made from a drawn glass tube as the inner layer, with a silver foil on its surface. They were then covered by another glass layer richer in iron oxide, before being cut into beads in a mould.