Ellen Swift has been investigating the beads within the Petrie’s Roman collection, to see what we can learn about the lives of these artefacts through analysis of their style and manufacturing techniques.
Evidence of bead-making has been found in Egypt at Alexandria, with scholars believing that many bead types found in Egypt were made there. In order to decide where a bead may have been made, we need to identify the technique of manufacture – this is because different techniques were used in various geographical areas. For example, in Alexandria it is thought that there was a production centre for beads with complex patterns made from mosaic canes, such as the example below.
Beads (UC6772) made from glass mosaic canes. [Photo: Petrie Museum]
Occasionally however, manufacturing evidence suggests a more exotic location, and we were excited to discover some Indo-Pacific beads, not previously identified as such, in the Petrie Museum collection. These beads are made from drawn tubes of glass. Instead of pressing these into moulds and then cutting them into individual beads or segmented sections of bead – as would be the norm for Roman production – the tubes have been cut into individual beads. Furthermore, the ends have been heat-rounded to remove any sharp edges, which results in the surface of the bead around the hole looking a bit melted. This specific technique links them to production in Asia.
The Petrie Indo-Pacific beads are mainly small green drawn cylinders with the distinctive heat-rounded ends, and probably originated in Sri Lanka. They occur in assemblages UC74124/UC74125 and UC74134 from Qau, a site in Egypt.
Bead assemblage UC74134, showing the heat-rounded edges of the Sri Lankan beads. [Photo: Ellen Swift].
In assemblage UC74124/UC74125 they appear to have been strung separately to the Roman turquoise blue cylinder beads that are the other main bead type present. The turquoise Roman beads have many string fragments preserved, however there are no string fragments in the Indo-Pacific beads. In assemblage UC74134 green glass and white shell disc beads may have been combined in one necklace.
Bead assemblage UC74125, showing the green Indo-Pacific beads alongside strung blue Roman beads. [Photo: Ellen Swift].
It is difficult to know whether the owners of these beads regarded them as exotic and special items, as they are quite similar in shape and colour to other beads available at Qau. It is only the detailed observation of the manufacturing method, which was not used in the production of Roman beads, that allows them to be identified as an imported foreign product.
The beads will have arrived via the Red Sea port of Berenike where similar Indo-Pacific beads have also been found (see Then-Obłuska 2015), and their presence at Qau illustrates something of how such trade goods became distributed more widely in Egypt. Excavations at Berenike have also revealed the presence of other exotic consumables such as black pepper and precious gems (Sidebotham 2011), demonstrating the extent of trade between Roman Egypt, India, and Sri Lanka.
Map showing the location of the port of Berenike, on the Red Sea. [Photo source]Our initial identifications were kindly confirmed by Marilee Wood and Joanne Then-Obłuska.
Bibliography
Sidebotham, S. (2011) Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route (Berkeley & Los Angeles, California: University of California Press).
Then-Obłuska, J. (2015) “Cross-cultural encounters at the Red Sea Port of Berenike, Egypt. Preliminary assessment”, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 24, 735-777.
