A Mid-16th to Mid-20th Century Glass Bead Sequence for South America

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Glass trade beads recovered during excavations by Smithsonian archaeologists Betty Meggers and Clifford Evans in Brazil, Guyana, and Ecuador can be readily placed in time using bead chronology studies developed in North America. The bead assemblages from their South America excavations date to multiple time periods, including the mid-16th, early-17th, mid-18th, mid-19th, and the mid-20th centuries. Nearly every one of the South American bead varieties are present in North America with the exception of 16th century transparent green donut-shaped beads that appear to have been made by piercing a globule of hot glass. Meggers’ and Evans’ excavations are used to establish a glass bead sequence for South America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23384