Jamestown’s "Blew Beads": More than Meets the Eye

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Opening the Vault: What Collections Can Say About Jamestown’s Global Trade Network", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Simple, drawn, turquoise blue beads (Kidd and Kidd IIa40), often referred to by a number of different regional names (e.g., Ichtucknee Plain, Early Blue), are one of the most common varieties recovered on colonial sites in North America. Beads of this variety dominate the 17th century James Fort (Jamestown, VA) assemblage and are likely the “blew beads” referenced by John Smith. Because of their ubiquity, this is one of the bead types whose elemental composition has been widely studied and many researchers have evaluated the elemental signature of these beads for evidence of manufacturing origin and dates of manufacture. In this paper we examine the IIa40 beads excavated at James Fort and report on the LA-ICP-MS and XRF data collected on a sample of these beads—evaluating how their temporality, origins, and circulations contribute to Jamestown’s global trade network.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Opening the Vault: What Collections Can Say About Jamestown’s Global Trade Network

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow