The Ile-Ife glass bead series: classification, chaîne opératoire and the ‘glass bead roads’ in West African archaeology

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the assemblage of over 20,000 glass beads and several kilograms of production waste excavated from Igbo-Olokun, southwest Nigeria. It presents the classificatory model adopted to understand the physical attributes of the assemblage for comparison and to begin developing the first West African glass bead series. While most glass beads in the archaeological context in West Africa are designated ‘exotic’ with, sometimes, a degree of modification to meet local tastes and values, the assemblage from Igbo-Olokun presents a case of ‘total’ local production and provides a unique opportunity for the reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire of glass beads in Ile-Ife. Combining results from the classification and the chemical composition of the beads and waste, this paper argues that the Ile-Ife HLHA glass bead forms a series that warrants fuller consideration in West African archaeology. Understanding the production, consumption and broader distribution of this series allows a robust discussion on the ‘glass bead roads’, i.e. the commercial networks that criss-crossed the West African region. This notion of ‘glass bead roads’ moves the analysis of archaeological beads away from the realm of mere exotics or objects of personal adornment and places them instead at the centre of discourses of regional interaction, affirming their agency in the early commercial networks in West Africa.