Manufacture Of Beads Research Articles

Late Pleistocene scaphopod beads from Boodie Cave and deep time traditions of personal ornamentation in northwest Australia

Tubular segments of Scaphopoda (tusk shell) were traditionally used by Aboriginal peoples in the manufacture of ornate bead necklaces across northwest Australia. Twenty-seven scaphopod shell beads were recovered from Boodie Cave on Barrow Island dating to between 13,500 and 10,600 cal BP. We compare the Boodie Cave bead assemblage to historical necklace collections as well as experimental studies on scaphopod blanks to characterise bead manufacture, breakage, use-wear, and placement patterns. Results demonstrate that the Boodie Cave beads are larger than other northwest Australian collections; have been manufactured by an anvil-rested percussion technique; have signs of use-wear in the form of polish and rounding but are less curated than specimens from the inland Kimberley. The use-wear study identified that the Boodie Cave beads were strung in a series in a pattern not observed in historical scaphopod necklaces from northern Australia. This patterning may represent a regional variation in display and technological organisation and was likely part of wider ornamental practices documented in historical sources. In all, the Boodie Cave beads provide early and additional evidence for the trade, wearing, and loss of scaphopod beads by mobile hunter-gathers on a dynamic coastline.

Ostrich eggshell bead-making in East Africa: a study of crafting in the El Molo community, Kenya

ABSTRACT Ostrich eggshell beads have been produced by African societies for over 50,000 years and are still used in East Africa and elsewhere, yet the only well-documented ethnographic record of their manufacture comes from San and Bakgalagadi communities in the Kalahari region of southern Africa. Even so, some aspects of their social significance have not been extensively explored. In particular, research on ostrich eggshell beads in southern Africa has historically focused largely on the use of beads in exchange contexts with less emphasis on their use in bodily adornment or the social contexts of manufacture and consumption. This paper reports on the production process and cultural significance of ostrich eggshell beads among the El Molo community of Marsabit County, Kenya. Undertaken as part of the British Museum’s Endangered Materials Knowledge Program (EMKP), this project used unstructured interviews, participatory videos, photography and note-taking to document the entire process of ostrich eggshell bead manufacture, including the collection of hammer stones (soit), the making of strings (arkat) for stringing the beads, the breaking of shells, shaping and rounding, stringing and the making of diverse beadwork items, including rumirumi, kukuti, karkato, lilim and rarak. The social significance of these various items is also reported. This study helps to preserve this knowledge and the continuation of the craft in the community, while also providing data for the enrichment of interpretations of ostrich eggshell beads from archaeological collections in the region, which have received inadequate research attention. The project represents the first detailed ethnographic work ever undertaken on ostrich eggshell beads in East Africa. The materials produced will be available on the EMKP open access online repository.

Ostrich eggshell beads from Little Muck Shelter, southern Africa: First impressions and regional perspectives

Hunting and gathering communities in southern Africa produced ostrich eggshell (OES) beads for personal ornamentation, trade and exchange, and various forms of symbolism. OES beads convey information related to not only technological processes, but also social histories, making them useful tools for investigating these processes in the archaeological record. In the middle Limpopo Valley, hunter-gatherers produced beads from periods that predated the arrival of farmer societies, before ca. AD 150, until the decline of the Mapungubwe capital, AD 1300. Their analysis may therefore lead to insights into local economies, craft activities, trade and exchange, and social roles. However, no study in the middle Limpopo Valley has sufficiently investigated these beads and their status within forager society. In this paper we study the manufacture of OES beads from one of the excavated forager-occupied shelters in the valley, Little Muck. This study is the first of its kind from a hunter-gatherer context in the region. It shows that Little Muck’s beads were standardised but produced in varying frequencies across temporal periods, and made following different production strategies. Use-wear analysis hints that some of the beads were pigmented and possibly altered using heat treatment. As an initial foray into a forager bead assemblage of the region, this study demonstrates the value such an approach may yield, and it aids in guiding future attempts. It also compares Little Muck’s bead assemblage with those from other sites across a much wider region where such studies have taken place. The findings demonstrate similar patterns to other parts of southern and eastern Africa, but also illustrate local shifts in bead production that follow changes in local socio-political dynamics.

Influence of V on the Microstructure and Precipitation Behavior of High-Carbon Hardline Steel during Continuous Cooling.

High-carbon hardline steels are primarily used for the manufacture of tire beads for both automobiles and aircraft, and vanadium (V) microalloying is an important means of adjusting the microstructure of high-carbon hardline steels. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the microstructure and precipitation phases of continuous cooled high-carbon steels were characterized, and the vanadium content, carbon diffusion coefficient, and critical precipitation temperature were calculated. The results showed that as the V content increased to 0.06 wt.%, the interlamellar spacing (ILS) of the pearlite in the experimental steel decreased to 0.110 μm, and the carbon diffusion coefficient in the experimental steel decreased to 0.98 × 10-3 cm2·s-1. The pearlite content in the experimental steel with 0.02 wt.% V reached its maximum at a cooling rate of 5 °C·s-1, and a small amount of bainite was observed in the experimental steel at a cooling rate of 10 °C·s-1. The precipitated phase was VC with a diameter of ~24.73 nm, and the misfit between ferrite and VC was 5.02%, forming a semi-coherent interface between the two. Atoms gradually adjust their positions to allow the growth of VC along the ferrite direction. As the V content increased to 0.06 wt.%, the precipitation-temperature-time curve (PTT) shifted to the left, and the critical nucleation temperature for homogeneous nucleation, grain boundary nucleation, and dislocation line nucleation increased from 570.6, 676.9, and 692.4 °C to 634.6, 748.5, and 755.5 °C, respectively.

Use of hare bone for the manufacture of a Clovis bead

A tubular bone bead dating to ~ 12,940 BP was recovered from a hearth-centered activity area at the La Prele Mammoth site in Converse County, Wyoming, USA. This is the oldest known bead from the Western Hemisphere. To determine the taxonomic origin of the bead, we extracted collagen for zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS). We also used micro-CT scanning for morphological analysis to determine likely skeletal elements used for its production. We conclude that the bead was made from a metapodial or proximal phalanx of a hare (Lepus sp.). This find represents the first secure evidence for the use of hares during the Clovis period. While the use of hare bone for the manufacture of beads was a common practice in western North America during the Holocene, its origins can now be traced back to at least the terminal Pleistocene.

Beads and Ceremony: The Collision of Pan-American, European, African, and Asian Bead Networks in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish Empire

A powerful bead network that wove together a transcontinental tapestry of cultures predated the Spanish invasion of the Americas. Beads created in the northeastern Atlantic world found themselves in Aztec and Incan territories, as did beads made from rocks found in the Pacific Northwest, all of which had been borne along trade networks that have existed for ages. Sixteenth-century illustrations found in the Mexican codices demonstrate the traditional manufacture of beads, which were used for a range of quotidian and ceremonial purposes. Since medieval times, Spaniards employed beads, called rescate, as currency for inequitable trade, whether for slaves or precious metals. The Spanish invasion introduced beads manufactured in other parts of the world to the Americas to form part of the ceremonial and spiritually endowed objects and ceremonies, and vice versa, American beads made their way into Spanish clothing and religious objects such as the rosary. A significant infusion of new beads from Spain rushed into the American bead network in the sixteenth century, some of which had international origins from places such as Venice, India, and West Africa. As material objects, beads negotiated intercultural relationships in powerful ways throughout the Spanish empire: beads were involved in treaties, territorial agreements, prayer, spiritual relations, wayfinding, and most importantly, ceremony. This article maps out the collision of bead networks within the sixteenth-century Spanish empire so as to flesh out the similar and innovative uses of beads, whether among Native American, Afro-descendant, or European communities, and their connection to spiritual and ceremonial practices.

Socioeconomic roles of Holocene marine shell beads reveal the daily life of composite objects from East Kalimantan, Borneo

Cultural objects composed of composite materials with differing physical properties are often differentially preserved in archaeological records favouring those materials less susceptible to taphonomic processes. Using microscopically observed wear patterns to decipher a model of socioeconomic roles for composite beaded objects, this study examines the rich marine shell bead assemblage excavated from Liang Jon in East Kalimantan, Borneo. Assessment of this 16,700-year sequence provides a unique context for discussing collection, transport, manufacture, and use of marine shell beads; spanning the biogeographical change associated with sea level rise 11,700 years ago creating the island of Borneo. Quantifying differences in bead wear patterning and distribution has revealed changes across 11,000 years of human occupation—detail seldom exposed in Island South East Asian archaeology. Results demonstrate marine species belonging to the families Nassariidae and Cypraeidae were targeted for the manufacture of beads. Whole shells and removed dorsa indicate some onsite manufacture occurred, while patterns of wear and residues including pigments, suggest most beads originated from different varieties of composite objects brought to the site and maintained in different contexts of daily life. Our model reveals a novel picture of Holocene social complexity broadly associated with dated rock art, providing a unique link between parts of the rich archaeological record at the Liang Jon, circumventing popular modes of ethnographic analogy less appropriate for this region.

Perforations in Columbellidae shells: Using 3D models to differentiate anthropogenic piercing from natural perforations

Perforated shells are often used to study socially mediated behaviour in past hunter-gatherer groups. One of the key issues regarding empty shells from beaches or fossil outcrops is determining human agency in the accumulation and modification of an assemblage. Here we investigate anthropogenic mediation in Initial Upper Palaeolithic and Early Ahmarian assemblages of Columbella rustica at Ksâr ‘Akil (Lebanon). We compare perforations in the archaeological specimens with data from newly gathered Columbellidae modern death assemblages from Tenerife (Spain) using three-dimensional shell-thickness models as templates. This approach, using micro-CT scans of pristine shells to map robust and fragile zones on shell outer-surfaces, allows us to contextualise the two datasets within their natural morphology. Our results show that in natural death assemblages the vast majority of perforations occur in structurally weak zones, and their distribution can be explained by shell morphology in combination with predator activity and other post-mortem damage. In our archaeological dataset we found a higher frequency of perforations in more robust zones and a higher uniformity in their location, size and shape. This suggests human mediation in either the selection or manufacture process of C. rustica beads at Ksâr ‘Akil from as early as the Initial Upper Palaeolithic and throughout the Early Ahmarian. Standardisation in perforation shape, size and distribution have been argued to be indicative of formalised manufacture processes and our results are thus more congruent with intentional bead manufacture than the selection of naturally-holed specimens.

Shell disc beads and the development of class-based society at the K2-Mapungubwe settlement complex (South Africa)

The K2-Mapungubwe settlement complex is widely regarded as the centre for the development of class-based society out of earlier ranked communities between c. AD 900 and AD 1300 in northern South Africa, southern Zimbabwe, and eastern Botswana. Beads made from ostrich eggs, the shells of Achatinidae snails, and freshwater bivalves formed an important part of the K2-Mapungubwe economy. Although thousands of shell beads have been excavated at the K2-Mapungubwe complex, this assemblage has never been analysed or even quantified in any meaningful manner. As such, only rough estimates of the distribution, use, and meaning of shell beads at these important sites were done. This article represents the first focussed research effort on this assemblage. The results demonstrate distinct spatial and chronological changes in the shell bead assemblage. Achatina beads are more common earlier in earlier phases, but after AD 1220, ostrich eggshell beads dominate. This could indicate access to new sources of raw materials. Our analysis took into account the spatial and social contexts of beads. This indicated that shell bead assemblage from the higher-status royal living areas remained morphologically constant over time, with a clear preference for smaller-sized beads. In contrast, beads from the lower-status areas could be grouped into distinct clusters of larger and smaller beads. The grouping of smaller bead on lower-status areas closely resembles elite assemblages. Smaller beads however become proportionally rarer outside elite areas over time. This may reflect changes in elite control and preferential access to shell beads. These results demonstrate how the use and manufacture of shell beads intersected with the socio-political changes that characterise the period. It also highlights the need for careful consideration of shell beads as a significant component of the political economy in the southern African Iron Age.

Glass Beads from Songo Mnara, Tanzania: Chemical Composition and Evidence for Local Bead Manufacture

Glass Beads from Songo Mnara, Tanzania: Chemical Composition and Evidence for Local Bead Manufacture

Jewellery Workshops on Elephantine

The settlement of Elephantine in southern Egypt is one of the few places where a local jewellery production made from different materials can be documented. In particular, semiproducts and production waste suggest the manufacture of bracelets and beads from stone and faience from the late Old Kingdom onwards. The production waste also allows for the reconstruction of the way hippopotamus ivory was cut into bracelets. A jewellery workshop can be identified as one of the functions of a large building dating to the Thirteenth Dynasty. Here, raw materials from the surrounding desert regions, i.e., amethyst and ostrich eggshells, were processed into beads, pendants, and scarabs. Various stages of a production line show how the ostrich eggshells were made into beads. The raw material and an unfinished scarab indicate the manufacture of amethyst objects. Semiproducts in the neighbouring houses show that in that area, pendants were also cut from mother of pearl.

Ostrich eggshell beads from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, southern Kalahari, and the implications for understanding social networks during Marine Isotope Stage 2.

Ostrich eggshell (OES) beads from southern African archaeological contexts shed light on past traditions of personal ornamentation, and they are also argued to provide a proxy for understanding past social networks. However, OES beads are often understudied and not reported on in detail. In particular, there has been little research on OES bead variation during Marine Isotope Stage 2 (29,000-12,000 years ago) which includes the Last Glacial Maximum when changing climatic conditions are hypothesized to have significant impact on forager social networks. Here, we present the first technological analysis of terminal Pleistocene OES beads and fragments in the Kalahari from the ~15 ka levels at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter. We contextualise these findings through comparison with coeval OES bead assemblages across southern Africa during MIS 2. Results indicate that OES beads were manufactured at Ga-Mohana Hill North during the terminal Pleistocene occupation, based on the presence of most stages of bead manufacture. The review shows that OES beads were present across southern Africa through MIS 2, suggesting that culturing of the body was an embodied and persistent practice during that time. While the importance of OES beads as decorative objects was shared by populations across southern Africa, variation in bead diameters indicate that there was stylistic variation.

Mont Saint-Aubin in Oisy (Nièvre, France): a Badegoulian manufacturing site for shell ornaments

Abstract. The Badegoulian open air site of mont Saint-Aubin at Oisy (Nièvre) yielded 353 marine mollusc shell remains (gastropods, scaphopods and bivalves) which testify of on-site shell bead manufacturing activities. The large conchyliological spectrum (31 taxons) includes many fossils from the Parisian Basin and a few shells that must have been collected on the Atlantic coast, indicating a distance of several hundreds of kilometres between the shell sources and the production site. The shell assemblage is composed of unmodified raw material, waste products and finished beads with intense use wear traces and sometimes repaired suspension holes. The identified manufacturing processes (morphometrical choices, perforation and segmentation methods, and systems of attaching the beads) reveal that the finished ornamental displays must have been varied, playing with different bead morphologies and -sizes as well as with different ways of attaching the beads (string, braiding). Providing information on the ways and means of marine shell exploitation for beadwork (territories of procurement and circulation of shells, storage, craftsmanship, recycling) this study offers new insights on Badegoulian techno-economic behaviour.

Insular Iconographies: Essays in Honour of Jane Hawkes, ed. Meg Boulton and Michael D.J. Bintley

This collection of twelve essays, edited by Meg Boulton and Michael D.J. Bintley, is a well-deserved tribute to Professor Jane Hawkes of the University of York. Hawkes has been a leading voice in the study of ‘Golden Age’ Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture for the last three decades, both in terms of exegetical iconographical analysis, and in terms of nurturing new scholars. Several of the contributions in the present volume are by Hawkes’s former students. While the main focus of the volume is appropriately art historical and iconographical, a wide range of other subjects and approaches is also covered, including Old English poetry (Michael Bintley), the production techniques of glass bead manufacture (Mags Mannion) and funerary archaeology (Thomas Pickles). The volume spans the Middle Ages, although there is a concentration on the eighth and ninth centuries. Four chapters treat single stone monuments, and one looks at a discrete sculptural corpus, from the...

Investigation of elimination of powder spreading in manufacture of thin and wide preheating beads from Co–Cr alloy powders using a P-ebeam

A preheating step consisting of the heating of substrates and powder particles is necessary to prevent spreading phenomenon of powders in an electron beam melting (EBM) process. The preheating step, however, increases the overall manufacturing time as well as the energy consumption of the EBM process. In addition, the preheating causes thermal damages of surrounding parts in the vicinity of the powder bed. These drawbacks are particularly notable when both thin and wide parts are fabricated from the EBM process. The present paper newly investigates the manufacture of thin and wide preheated beads from a plasma electron beam (P-ebeam) and a Co–Cr alloy with a low temperature heating of the substrate. The effects of process parameters, including the working distance of P-ebeam, the probe current of the P-ebeam and the travel speed of the table, on the formation of preheated beads are examined to obtain feasible preheating conditions. The influence of the probe current and the travel speed on heat transfer characteristics in the vicinity of the irradiated region by P-ebeam are investigated via finite element analyses to analyze the cause of the powder spreading and defects. Finally, suitable preheating methods are proposed to fabricate thin and wide preheated beads through the elimination of the powder spreading.

Hunting colours: origin and reuse of glass tesserae from the Wierum terp

Mosaic glass tesserae were imported to Dutch sites during the Early Medieval period, probably to address the demand for coloured glass needed in ornamental bead manufacture. Although challenging, because of the uncertainty of the material’s context, the Wierum Early Medieval collection represents an extraordinary opportunity, being the most significant find of glass tesserae in the Netherlands to date. The combined use of electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) and hand-held X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (HH XRF) allowed us to examine glass tesserae and other vitreous samples from the site. Low levels for magnesium and potassium oxides (<1.5 wt%) and the chemical components linked with the silica source, fluxes, opacifiers and chromophores are compatible with an older Roman soda-lime-silica glass production. Alumina and calcium oxide contents together with the adoption of antimony-based opacifiers are compatible with mosaic tesserae of a first to third century AD Roman tradition. We assume that these tesserae were collected during the spoliation of a lavish building and reused for glass objects produced locally. The hypothesis seems to be confirmed by the presence in the collection of tesserae still embedded in mortar, stone tesserae fragments and a rounded fragment of Egyptian blue.

All-polysaccharide hydrogels for drug delivery applications: Tunable chitosan beads surfaces via physical or chemical interactions, using oxidized pullulan

The present work reports a versatile approach to the manufacture of chitosan beads with tunable pore size and targeted properties. To achieve this, the as prepared chitosan beads were allowed to interact with aqueous solutions of two types of oxidized pullulan derivatives. Depending on the functional groups present on the pullulan structure after oxidation, i.e., carboxyl or aldehyde, covalent or physical hybrid hydrogels could be prepared. The attachment of oxidized pullulan onto chitosan structure was checked by FTIR, RMN, XPS and thermal analysis. The morphology of the hybrid structures was evaluated by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). After structural evaluations, all the prepared hydrogels were characterized by means of dynamic vapor sorption and swelling degree studies, exhibiting a Case-II swelling mechanism. Drug model compounds, such as ibuprofen, bacitracin and neomycin were used for drug loading and release assays, proving high drug loading capacity and tunable release behavior. Drug loaded beads exhibited antibacterial activity and hemocompatibility experiments indicated no coagulation phenomena.

Approaches to land snail shell bead manufacture in the Early Holocene of Malawi

Shell disc beads are important archeological indicators of social communication and exchange networks. There has been substantial research on ostrich eggshell (OES) beads, but little is known about the manufacture or chronology of similar beads from land snail shells (LSS). LSS beads are associated with Holocene hunter-gatherers in Africa, though direct dates are limited to the Iron Age, and there are no images or descriptions of the manufacturing sequence. Here, we combine experimental and archeological data to resolve the chronology, operational chains, and material properties of LSS bead manufacture. We then recommend and apply a modified OES production sequence to three Later Stone Age assemblages from the Kasitu Valley of northern Malawi (Hora 1, Mazinga 1, and Kadawonda 1). At these sites, LSS shows an unexpectedly high proportion of Pathway 2 manufacture (disc shaping prior to perforation), in direct contrast with known OES bead manufacture. Application of red color occurred at all stages of manufacture, albeit inconsistently. Production of finished beads involved substantial removal of material from preforms to create the final product. Finally, we report the earliest evidence for LSS bead manufacture with two directly dated preforms (~ 9500 cal BP), showing that the origins of LSS beadmaking do precede the Iron Age.

Beading as a therapeutic activity in Ghana

ABSTRACT Africa’s fascinating bead history pre-dates the African Trade Bead era by over 82,000 years. Beads, thought to be over 12,000 years old have been found within Libya, Sudan and Kenya where the Turkana people once recognised beads for their value as currency. Cowrie shell beads and bone beads are thought to be among the first types of beads until glass beads were introduced from Western Europe. The Krobo land is among notable bead manufacturing and beading areas in Ghana today. The article discusses the cultural importance of beading in Ghana and how the occupation is used therapeutically in a regional mental health hospital, based on the argument that activities of making intrinsic to traditional, user-centred design practices might impact well-being. In addition to well-being and their connection to making, the concepts of recycling and income generation are explored in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Repeatability of in vitro carboplatin elution from carboplatin‐impregnated calcium sulfate hemihydrate beads made in a clinic setting

To evaluate the intra-lot and inter-lot consistency and total carboplatin elution over 25 days from carboplatin-impregnated calcium sulfate hemihydrate (C-I CSH) beads manufactured in a clinic setting. In vitro elution study. Two volumes of carboplatin were mixed with CSH to yield 4 mg and 8 mg C-I CSH doses. Two lots of beads were made for each concentration and split into five doses (n = 10 per concentration). Beads hardened in molds and were placed in a covered six-well plate, submerged in phosphate-buffered saline, and incubated with samples collected at 12 time points (0, 6, 12, and 24 hours and 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 18, and 25 days). The amount of carboplatin in each sample was evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Correction for carboplatin degradation and dilution was applied, and eluted carboplatin was calculated. Intra-lot and inter-lot coefficient of variation (CV) was calculated for each concentration. The intra-lot CV ranged between 7.9% and 23.1%, and the inter-lot CV ranged from 3.5% to 10.3%, with improvement noted in each successive lot of beads. Mean peak eluted carboplatin was 2.45 ± 0.43 mg (61%) and 3.68 ± 0.41 mg (45.9%) for the 4-mg and 8-mg C-I CSH beads, respectively, with both occurring at the 12-hour timepoint. Progressive improvement in variability with successive lots of beads indicated a learning curve with bead manufacturing with a low variation both within and between lots of C-I CSH beads. On-site mixing of carboplatin with commercial CSH bead powder leads to a low variation of carboplatin per bead dose.