The History of Beads

The History of Beads

Beads are a human artifact older than the dawn of civilization. Many millennia ago, in the caves of Ice Age Europe and northern China, in the vast wilderness of Australia, in mountainous Korea, in equatorial India, and in the western Great Basin of North America, humans were fashioning small objects of animal bone and teeth, seashells and colorful stones strung on sinew or plant fiber to adorn their bodies and clothing. During the ensuing eras, humankind’s fascination with the infinite variety, beauty, mystery and charisma of beads has continued to the present day. Every human culture has romanced the bead, and each civilization’s spiritual beliefs, aesthetic tastes, social circumstances, political history, glory and vanity is expressed in its beads. Moreover, the story of the development of human economics and trade can also be traced through the history of beads.

The earliest beads were possibly created to help extend the power of human hunters over their prey, to bring luck, to protect the wearer from danger and harm, and to strengthen a connection with the spiritual world. Very ancient beads have been discovered by archaeologists all over the world, establishing a pattern which speaks of the importance of beads to our distant forebears.

The oldest known beads, dated at about 38,000 BC and found in France, were made of animal teeth and bone by Neanderthal people. Slighter later, about 31,000 BC, Cro-Magnon people were crafting beads representing female fertility figures and game animals. Upper Paleolithic sites dating from 17,000 to 10,000 BC in Russia, Southern France, northern Spain, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Austria have yielded beads. The Magdalenian culture, known for its famous cave paintings in southern France and in Spain, was also producing beautifully crafted beads by at least 15,000 BC.

Sometime around 8,000 BC there was a widespread transition in the human population from nomadic food-gatherers and hunters to food-growers living in settlements. The ability to grow and store surplus food allowed time for craft specialization. Neolithic, or stone-age people increasingly made beads for adornment and trading. They customarily consecrated a temple area by sowing it with beads, or mixing beads into the mud used for foundation bricks. This ritual was intended to bring prosperity to the temple, which was also a repository of a city’s wealth.

By 6,500 BC, civilizations based on extensive agriculture were rapidly evolving in the Mediterranean region. Artisans in these cultures made distinctive beads of semi-precious stone and shells. Some of these materials were imported as the Mediterranean cultural centers developed trade with mountain cultures of western Asia, including those in today’s Afghanistan. Sumerian and Mesopotamian jewelry and beadmaking had a major influence on the adornment of cultures which followed in western Asia and the Mediterranean.

In 6,000 BC at Catal Huyuk, a great trading center in central Anatolia, beads of Mediterranean coral were made. In ancient Cyprus, the wealthy wore necklaces of imported carnelian beads. In the 3rd millennium BC, the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia wore beads of lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan. Beads recovered from the royal tombs at Ur, capital of Sumeria, are among the finest and most beautiful made in the ancient world, and Sumerian goldsmiths developed many of the goldsmithing techniques used today. Semiprecious stone beads made in Afghanistan in the Second and Third Millennium are very similar to those recovered from the royal tombs at Ur.

From about 2800 BC, Ancient Syrians made butterfly-shaped and other beads of agate and serpentine, Sinai turquoise and Mediterranean cowry shells. By 1600 BC the Minoans of Crete were well known for their beads of gold and semi-precious stones. For 500 years starting about 1700 BC, the Mycenaens, forerunners of the Hellenic Greeks, were leading maritime traders in the Mediterranean, exchanging copper and bronze implements for rare amber from the Baltic, to be made into beads. Their artisans also made fabulous jewelry of gold beads, still ranked among the world’s most skilled examples of goldsmithing.

After thousands of years of using natural materials such as bone, shells, and stones, beadmaking took a great technological leap forward. Glassmaking was developed, revolutionizing the world of beads, and in the process international trade.

By 4,000 BC, a new material was invented in either Mesopotamia or Egypt. Called “faience” today, it was the forerunner of true glass. Faience was the first mass-produced, synthetic material to simulate stones such as turquoise and lapis lazuli. Evidence indicates that glassmaking, and the glass beadmaking that followed has a western Asian and possibly a Sumerian origin. The earliest examples of glass beads are from the Akkad dynasty of Mesopotamia, circa 2340-2180 BC, as well as those from the Causcasus region in Russia made between 2400 and 2300 BC By about 1500 BC, a technique to make mosaic glass beads had been invented in Mesopotamia. Faience and glass beads satisfied the desire of almost everyone to wear inexpensive beads that resembled the precious stones of the wealthy.

Egypt’s New Kingdom, circa 1350 BC is generally considered to be the world’s first great glassmaking epoch. At about the same period, the Phoenicians became highly skilled glass beadmakers. By 1200 BC, they had become the leading navigators and traders of their time, trading cedar lumber, purple cloth and glass beads for copper, gold, precious stones, ivory and spices. And by 800 BC, Carthage, a colonial Phoenician outpost which became a great international seaport, was famed for its glass beads and pendants. Glass beads were carried by sea thousands of miles to be traded by ancient Phoenician and later Roman mariners, and over the ensuing 19 centuries glass beads have been traded the world around, becoming one of civilization’s most familiar and popular currencies.

In the ancient world, beads evolved into status symbols based on wealth and social stratification. Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Indian civilizations were hierarchical societies, in which wealth was concentrated in the upper classes. Beads held a dual function as amulets and status symbols for the wealthy throughout most of western Asia, Egypt and the Mediterranean in ancient times.

Conversely, in ancient Egypt, virtually everyone, even the poorest of people, wore beads. This was true throughout the three dynasties which continued from 3100 BC to 30 BC The Egyptian word sha means “luck,” and sha-sha means “bead,” and ancient Egyptians may have believed that beads had amuletic or protective powers. Large quantities of gold, semi-precious stone, or glass beads were buried with wealthy owners, but even poor families buried pottery or faience beads with their dead.

Ancient Persia, which flourished from 1,000 BC to about 330 BC, made beads of many materials, including gold. By the time of Cyrus II, Persian influence extended from North Africa to India, and Persian jewelry influenced that of many cultures. In 334 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire. The Persian treasure of Darius III was captured by the Greeks, and it included remarkable jewelry that was a rich source of new design motifs for Hellenic jewelers, who developed beautiful jewelry of gold and precious stones from 300 BC to 1 BC

With the ascent and expansion of the Roman Empire about 100 BC, Roman glass factories in Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch in Anatolia, and in Syria, Egypt, Italy, and even Switzerland produced great quantities of glass beads based on Egyptian, Phoenician, Eutruscan, and Hellenic designs. Roman period glass beads have been found in Scandinavia, China, Korea, Iran, Syria, Mali, Ethiopia, where they were transported via overland trade routes and by Roman ships. There were more glass beads made in the 1st century AD in the Roman Empire than in the previous 1,500 years. The material was widely obtainable, relatively inexpensive, and no longer reserved for the elite. Everyone could now afford to wear beads.

The fascination with beads by royalty and the wealthy continued into the Byzantine era, which began in 330 AD and continued for over 1,000 years. But the height of ornamentation was in the court at Constantinopole of the Holy Roman Emperor Justinian I and his queen, Theodora, where beads of precious gems were combined with gold and pearls to make elegant jewelry based on classic Roman, Hellenic, and Persian styles. Byzantine jewelry was worn primarily by the elite, with some gemstones reserved for royalty.

The Celtic tribes of northern Europe as well as the Vikings, who became feared invaders and plunderers, developed their own beadwork of both locally made and captured beads. The Celts of the British Isles and western Europe made beads as early as 1,000 BC. The Franks, conquerors of the late Roman Empire, dominated western Europe from the late 5th century to the early 9th century AD. Frankish glassmakers were inspired by Roman designs, and also imitated ancient Celtic bead work of 1,500 years earlier. Scandinavians were actively involved in the Baltic amber trade, exporting as well as manufacturing beads. The Vikings, from the 6th century to about the 13th century, wore silver, amber, carnelian, crystal and glass beads to show their social status. Beads are among the most common objects found in pre-Christian Viking graves.

In medieval Europe, the wearing of beads and beaded jewelry was surpressed by the Catholic Church as too flamboyant and impious. However beads were allowed to be used in prayer and meditation as rosaries. As the Church became wealthy, and monarchs did likewise, beaded rosaries became jeweled strands around the necks of cardinals and kings, supporting gold crucifixes. Beads of precious stones, pearls, and gold became customary, worn primarily by the European monarchy and aristocracy.

By the mid-1400s, the Renaissance had spread throughout the European continent. Renaissance artists such as Sandro Botticelli and Piero della Francesca portrayed beautiful women adorned with pearls and jeweled beads in their hair and around their necks. Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan led an era of European exploration by the sea and subsequent colonizations.

By 1850, Europeans controlled the oceans, and had colonized Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Glass beads and their export to these “New Worlds” were a crucial component of European trade. English, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese traders distributed glass beads made in Venice, Holland, France, Bohemia, and Moravia throughout the Americas. Glass beads of Venetian manufacture were traded in Africa for gold, ivory, palm oil, and slaves. The profit in commodities and human slaves exceeded 1000%.

The emergence of a large middle class during the Industrial Revolution began a new phase of jewelry design. These newly affluent and educated folk changed customs and demands. New materials and manufacturing techniques brought great quantities of fine jewelry within the reach of a mass audience. Beads of coral, amber, rock crystal and glass were worn by the middle class and nobility alike. Cut-steel and cast-iron jewelry were substituted for precious stones and metals in times of economic recession, thus the saying “I exchanged gold for iron.”

While Europe was in its restless and violent Dark Ages, in the desert lands bordering the Red Sea arose the Islamic faith. The religious art of Islam, which included beadmaking, was to have a profound and widespread influence throughout the world. Glass beadmaking flourished in the Islamic world from AD 700 to 1400 AD. Its manufacturing techniques were adapted from earlier Egyptian and Roman glass bead techniques and styles. Islamic merchants traded with Scandinavia, Africa, China and India. Beads showing Islamic influence have even been found in Viking sites in Sweden and Denmark. Within the Islamic world, beads serve as status symbols, portable wealth, and amulets. Men wear the subha, a strand of 39 or 99 prayer beads corresponding to the 99 “beautiful names” of Allah. The Koran refers to stars as “beads of the sky.”

On the Indian continent, beaded jewelry has been important for millennia to all classes of Indian society. Some of the oldest beads found in India date to from 23,000 BC to 17,000 BC. India has a wealth of agates, and this gave rise to an ancient agate bead industry. Beads produced in India over 3,000 years ago are identical to those found in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Crete and Egypt from the same period. Indus Valley merchants may have traded or sold beads and other goods with ancient Babylonia and Egypt, and between AD 500 and 1500, Indian merchants traded agate and glass beads into East and West Africa, the Middle East, Egypt, and Southeast Asia.

The region known as central Asia has been a major hub of cultural interaction and one of the world’s great melting pots. For millennia, almost every person in central Asia has worn substantial quantities of beads. Beads were and are part of the daily spiritual and secular life of the people, as objects of wealth and social status or as talismans. Overland trade routes crisscrossed central Asia, connecting the great civilizations of the Mediterranean and western Asia to the west and India and China to the east. Beads were usually imported to central Asia, and have always been a component of central Asian trade. Italian coral, Burmese and Baltic amber, Chinese silver and turquoise, and precious gems from India passed through the region.

China, Korea, and Japan also have an ancient beadmaking tradition. The oldest beads found in China were of stone, made about 16,000 BC and found in the Neolithic caves at Shou-kou-dian. Other beads of ostrich eggshell and fossil dinosaur eggshell have been found in the Gobi Desert, and date from about 12,000. BC jade beads, revered in China, have been found which date from 1,500 to 1000 BC, and silver and glass beads were also produced as early as 800 BC. The written character for “jade” and “bead” is the same in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

Jade, coral, lapis lazuli, glass, turquoise and amber, all to be fashioned into beaded jewelry, were imported into China, then to Korea and Japan via the Silk Road routes over a 1,200 year period from 200 BC to 1,000 AD. Beads were manufactured for limited domestic use by royalty and the aristocratic elite. Quantities of beads of precious or semi-precious materials as well as glass have been uncovered in ancient royal tombs or those of high-ranking aristocrats. Chinese glass “eye’ beads dating from the 4th to the 1st century BC are among the finest and most complex ever made.

20,000 year-old deer toe-bone beads have been found in a cave in Turubong, Korea. Over centuries, Korea imported many beads from China, but also produced some of its own. Korean royalty typically wore crowns and girdles made of thousands of beads of precious and semi-precious gems and pearls. In imperial Japan, artisans excelled in making ivory and metal ojime, or sliding fasteners for personal carrying cases. Those from the 18th and 19th centuries AD are works of high art.

In Southeast Asia and the South Pacific region, beaded jewelry has served as personal adornment, protective amulets, and political badges of rank, as well as dowries, ceremonial exchange goods, and sacred altar objects. The earliest beads in Southeast Asia were excavated from Neolithic caves in Borneo, and date from 2,500 to 1,000 BC Most of the hundreds of large and small islands in the South Pacific have been accessible to seaborne traders, and beads have been an important element in the region’s trade for thousands of years. Because of sea trade routes linking India, China, western Asia and Europe, the peoples of Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Philippines were significantly influenced by these cultures. Other excavated sites contain beads of agate, carnelian, crystal and amethyst from India and Sri Lanka. Glass beads came from India during the 1st century AD, and Roman-style “eye beads” reached Southeast Asia in the early middle ages before the 12th century.

Across the vast Pacific Ocean, beads appeared early in the history of Middle and South American cultures. Snail shells beads from southern Mexico date to 7,500 BC. Beadmaking in Middle America developed as societies based on agriculture were established, and ceremonialism and increasingly complex social and political relationships evolved. Prehistoric Middle and South American peoples produced a variety of beautiful beads, but the most valued were those of jade and gold. But In the twenty-four years between 1519 to 1533 the Spanish conquistadors defeated both the Aztec and Inca empires, essentially destroying them. With the breakdown of the Indian civilizations and the elimination of their elite, their bead production disappeared.

Far to the north lay a wild continent sparsely inhabited by peoples of Asiatic ancestry who were developing their own distinct forms of beads. All North American Indians appreciated beads, and at least 8,000 years before Columbus’ arrival in the “New World,” Indians were making, wearing, and trading beads of shell, pearl, bone, teeth, stone, and fossil crinoid stems. The turquoise, stone, and shell beads of the Ancestral Pueblo of the southwest date from 400 AD to about 1250 AD.

Among the eastern seaboard and Woodland natives, wampum, made from shell beads and woven into belts with sinew thread, was worn as decoration but developed great significance as currency, and was also used an object commemorating major political and ceremonial events.

The first glass beads to reach North America were brought by Vikings, and were found at Vinland, in Newfoundland. Imported glass beads were first introduced to North American native populations by Columbus in 1492. Glass beads had a significant economic and aesthetic impact on the material culture of North American native people. The introduction of glass beads led to the decline of ancient decorative techniques, including quillwork, and beadwork became the predominant Indian craft. Many Indian women borrowed heavily from European motifs, such as those found in embroidery and lacework, and designs found on Oriental rugs brought by settlers.

In the 16th century small “seed beads” became an important medium of exchange in the expanding North American fur trade. By the American Revolution, glass beads were widely traded in exchange for beaver and other fur pelts. Different types of glass beads had varying trade values in amounts of pelts. Red “Hudson Bay” beads carried an exchange value of 6 beads to one beaver skin.

Across another ocean, the Atlantic, beads are central to the lives of all Africans. The earliest known African beads are disk-shaped forms made of ostrich eggshells dating from 10,000 BC from upper Paleolithic sites in Libya and the Sudan. Ostrich eggshell is still used in Africa today for beadmaking, although its use is restricted.

Gold beads, bronze beads, gemstone and stone beads, and shell beads have an ancient history in Africa, but glass beads are the most common feature of African adornment. Glass beads were first imported into Africa from India, Egypt and Rome before the Christian era. Shipments of beads began arriving in Africa by at least the 4th century AD. In the 7th century, Muslim Arabs conquered Mediterranean Africa and exchanged glass beads and other commodities for West African gold, ivory, and slaves.

Starting in the late 15th century, West African people began to trade the Portuguese, followed over the next 400 years by the Dutch, English, French, Belgians, and Germans. Millions of Venetian, Dutch, and Bohemian glass beads were imported to Africa. European-made glass beads were the major trade good bartered with Africans for incense, ivory, gold, tortoise shell, rhinoceros horn, oils, and human slaves. Between the 1500s and 1867, slavers moved some 15 million Africans to the Americas, exchanging glass beads used specifically to purchase their human cargo.

A form of bead used less for adornment than for piety figures prominently in the history of beads. Prayer beads were used universally in all religious traditions. Prayer beads are used by Buddhists in Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan, and Muslims commonly use prayer beads as well. Christianity was the last of the major religions to adapt and employ prayer beads. Even today, the religions of nearly two-thirds of the world’s population utilize some form of prayer beads. The word bead is derived from the Anglo-Saxon bidden (“to pray”) and bede (“prayer”). During the early medieval period in Europe, jewelry was discouraged by the church, but beaded rosaries were acceptable as devices for counting prayers. Men and women in present day Greece, Turkey, or the Middle East hold “worry beads.” Saudi Arabian businessmen finger strings of beads. Worry beads are probably derived from both Christian and Islamic prayer beads.

(Thanks to The International Bead Expo Press for permission to reprint this   History of Beads)