Glass Bead Dating

Although much of the evidence is sporadic and anecdotal, no one makes the effort to obtain a good sense of the magnitude of problems Africans face when they migrate to other countries. The most significant influx of Ghanaians emigrating to the United States has been in the four decades since independence. While many long-time Ghanaian American immigrants in the United States came as students, many of the immigrants of 1980s and 1990s came seeking business opportunities as well as specialized experience and training. Even though, times of economic hardship in Ghana have affected the number that emigrate little or less is imagined of the socio-cultural, economic and political challenges that await their emigration to the United States.

Drawing primarily on data from excavations at Elmina, Ghana, this report examines the potential use of beads as temporal markers in West African archaeology.  It is argued that although beads from West African contexts are difficult to date, they provide more information than has previously been suggested.  The Elmina beads are of particular interest as they can be closely dated by the associated European trade materials.  Preliminary results from the analysis of the more than 30,000 locally-made and European glass beads recovered are discussed and findings from other West African sites evaluated.

""The ‘big bang’ theory - best articulated by Ivor Wilks in the late 1970s and recently revisited - is a complex heuristic monument that must be carefully deconstructed. Its claim that before the integration of forested West Africa into the European bullion market and the opening of the Atlantic trade, the forest dwellers of Ghana were hunters and gatherers has been convincingly disproved by archaeological findings during the last 15 years. Indeed, history as a discipline contains limitations that were too often underestimated in reconstructing fragments of the early history of forested Ghana, especially with regards to the ‘origins’ of an agrarian order.
However, we also observe that large-scale, deep change definitely took place before and during the Atlantic era, which echoes significantly with sections of Wilks’ theory. Some parts of the ‘Big Bang’ paradigm are therefore still useful as encapsulating genuine historical information and thought-provoking hypotheses, which, if adequately recontextualized, may help to open a new page of early African history.""""

The purpose of this paper is to clear up fallacies about the distinctive glass beads known as Nueva Cadiz beads. Among topics covered are place of manufacture (NOT Nueva Cadiz!), how date ranges were
worked out, various varieties, how they were made, regional variations, and archaeological occurrences. In addition, anomalous similar-but-later beads will be discussed (red ones in the Northeast and huge ones
produced in the nineteeth century). The fact that Nueva Cadiz and other sixteenth-century glass beads are being looted on a massive scale in Peru and widely sold means we must be especially careful about interpreting unprovenienced collections.

The paper examines possible links between the southern African practices of ‘traditional healing’, especially the material culture associated with this, and trance and healing in southern India. Evidence for an early link is developed by examining the ‘mace’, ‘axe’, ‘spear’ (umkhonto, imkhali) of the sangoma (southern African traditional healer) and the iconography of Ganesha and Hanuman in particular. The role of beads, espeically colours, the Indian Ocean trade in beads, and possible manufacturing methods are included in the analysis. The material culture, espeically the ‘weapons’ of the sangoma, and the beads, show strong similarities with southern Indian ritual and religious material culture that suggest more than trade was involved in early links between the southern Indian region and the southern African region.

Echter een gedegen inventaris en onderzoek van glaskralen die in archeologische contexten zijn aangetroffen en waarbij gesynthetiseerd wordt over een groter gebied is er niet. Het doel van dit onderzoek is dan ook een degelijk inventaris van uitsluitend glaskralen uit

Among the earliest European beads to reach North America is a distinctive group generally referred to in the archaeological literature as frit-core or frit-cored, so called because their interiors consist of sintered sand rather than solid glass. Likely produced in France, they are restricted to northeastern North America and have short temporal ranges, making them ideal chronological indicators for the latter part of the 16th century and the very early 17th century.

Interfacial reactions during Si die attachment with Zn-Al-Mg-Ga high-temperature lead (Pb)-free solder on bare Cu lead-frame (Tamac 4) and Ni metallized Cu lead-frame were investigated using an optical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX). Die attachment was performed in an automatic die attach machine in a forming gas environment at temperature 380C. The back side of the die was metallized with Ti/Ni/Ag layers. Comparative studies of die attach properties such as wetting, void and die shear strength on bare and Ni metallized Cu lead-frame was made. Cross sectional microstructural investigation revealed that as many as three intermetallic compound (IMCs) layers form at the solder/lead-frame interface for bare Cu lead-frame. A CuZn intermetallic layer forms close to copper, a scallop shaped CuZn 4 forms at the solder side, while Cu 5Zn 8 forms at the middle. At the interface with Si die, IMC layer could not be detected by SEM. With Ni metallized Cu lead-frame, no IMC layer was observed at the solder/lead-frame as well as Si die/solder interface by SEM. Wetting on Ni metallized Cu lead-frame was found to be lower as compared to that at bare Cu lead-frame. Die shear strength was found to be higher on bare Cu lead-frame (24.2 MPa) as compared to Ni metallized Cu lead-frame (20.5 MPa). Die shear strength of standard Pb-5Sn solder was also measured for comparison and found to be 28.2 MPa.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5746721

"Tumulus 2 of Meshalä Maryam (Mänz)
Around twenty tumuli-like monuments were identified in 1997-1999 on the site of Meshalä Maryam, known as having been an important site of the Christian kingdom during the XVth century. One of these monuments, the tumulus 2, has proved to be a funeral monument. It has the aspect of a stone heap which bore at its summit, before the archaeological excavation, a crater that lets one imagine an initially corbelled roof above a round chamber. This chamber had been plundered before the excavation, but this had not disturbed deep archaeological levels. The archaeological excavation of this tumulus revealed the existence of two well distinguished levels inside the funeral chamber. The higher level contained many human bones, certain of which, found alongside the walls, seemed to have retained their anatomic connexions. Many animal bones were also present. The sifted sediments delivered several hundred beads. The bottom level, about 30 cm thick, undisturbed, contained around thirty whole ceramics which were set in a bed of alternating ash and sediments. We were able to reconstitute the different phases of the monument’s use: they enable us to imagine the existence, associated to the original monument, of a first stage corresponding to the burial of an individual (or of a small number of individuals) together with an important storing of ceramics ; followed by successive burials, as deaths occurred,  of individuals making up a group whose composition evokes family like ties. The minimum number of individuals buried in this monument is 19.
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