Mission Period Glass Beads from the Northern Channel Islands of California

Summary

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

Glass beads were an important trade item and symbol of culture contact for Native Americans in coastal California and the Channel Islands where people had manufactured shell and stone beads for some 10,000 years. Glass bead assemblages from the northern Channel Islands, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and San Miguel, all entered the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History during the 1870s, via four collectors. The glass beads are consistent with the late eighteenth--early nineteenth century time frame of the Mission period. The assemblages differ somewhat from Mission sites on the mainland, with the colors blue and green predominating on the islands, followed by red and white beads, along with some black beads. The opacifiers used in the manufacture of white drawn glass beads are also examined with pXRF to assist with the dating of the white beads. As other studies have shown, the material culture of the Channel Islands, notably glass beads and shell beads, provides insight into changes to and the maintenance of traditions outside the direct sphere of Spanish influence. The information derived from these assemblages shows the value of re-examining older museum collections, especially ones that were obtained before the emergence of scientific excavations.

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): 24737