Chemical Analysis of Chinese and other Lead Glass Beads from Songo Mnara, Tanzania
Author(s): Laure Dussubieux; Marilee Wood
Year: 2015
Summary
A number of potash lead silicate glass beads have been recovered from excavations at the 14th to 16th century Tanzanian site of Songo Mnara, a small but wealthy stone town on an island just south of Kilwa Kisiwani. LA-ICP-MS analysis has shown that two groups of Chinese beads are present, one that dates to the early 15th century, when Zheng He’s fleets visited the East Coast, and the other from around the turn of the 17th century when European glass beads began to be traded in that region. These beads will be compared to related assemblages from Southeast Asia and chemical and morphological characteristics that can be used to separate and identify these groups will be discussed. The analysis also identified several high lead beads that do not belong to these groups and that are probably modern intrusions.
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Cite this Record
Chemical Analysis of Chinese and other Lead Glass Beads from Songo Mnara, Tanzania. Marilee Wood, Laure Dussubieux. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 396448)
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Keywords
General
China, Tanzania
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glass chemistry
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potash lead silicate glass
Geographic Keywords
AFRICA
Spatial Coverage
min long: -18.809; min lat: -38.823 ; max long: 53.262; max lat: 38.823 ;