From Shell To Glass: How Beads Reflect A Changing Indigenous Cultural Landscape

Author(s): Julia King; Rebecca Webster

Year: 2018

Summary

This paper explores how indigenous groups in the lower Potomac River valley used beads of shell, glass, copper, stone, and clay to both respond to and shape an ever-changing colonial landscape. The distributions of beads recovered from five sites occupied between 1500 and 1710 reveal variations and trends linked to site function, status, ethnicity, displacement, and dislocation. In particular, the distribution of bead color, an important attribute for communicating Native states of being, dramatically shifts after 1680, with earlier assemblages dominated by white beads and later assemblages by black and red beads. 

Cite this Record

From Shell To Glass: How Beads Reflect A Changing Indigenous Cultural Landscape. Julia King, Rebecca Webster. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441335)

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Keywords

Temporal Keywords
1500-1710 CE

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 855