Making amber beads: technological insights into a Late Neolithic and Bronze Age craft activity

Summary

Experimental research of different ways of shaping and perforating amber beads has provided insight into the signatures of different manufacturing techniques and the character of the tools involved. Using stereo and incident light microscopy it was for example possible to distinguish the features from the use of metal tools from the traces resulting from flint implements. Perforating amber with drills made of different raw materials like wood, metal, flint and antler, also show considerable variation in traces, with Micro CT scans further elucidating the exact shape of the perforation and allowing a close scrutiny of the production marks. This knowledge was used to study beads from Late Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements and burials, located in the present-day Netherlands. Late Neolithic coastal settlement sites have shown evidence for large scale production of amber beads, with beads being markedly different technologically from contemporary funerary sites further inland. This observation will be examined from the perspective of craft specialisation and identities of the makers and users of these beads. In this paper we will discuss our experimental results and use these findings to better understand the archaeological observations on beads from Late Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement and funerary sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Adornment, Personal Ornamentation, and the Construction of Identity: A Global Archaeological Perspective   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16746