At the end of 1583, the Gagliana Grossa, a Venetian merchantman, sank near the small island of Gnalić at the south-western entrance of the Pašman Channel, Croatia. Heading to Constantinople from Venice, its cargo contains, amongst other goods, several barrels of glass beads manufactured in Venice. Recovered through several underwater excavations, 5kg of beads and fragments of beads were sorted according to the Kidd and Kidd’s typology (1970) and analyzed with LA-ICP-MS. More than 80 types of beads were identified, all made with the drawing technique, rediscovered by Venetian craftsmen in the 16^th century. The elemental composition of the glass beads matches those of other objects from the shipwreck and from archaeological collections attributed to Venetian workshops. This collection sets for the first time a reference for the production of glass beads in Venice at the end of the 16^th century.

We conducted a chemical analysis of Nueva Cadiz from two 16^th-century collections, originating from the namesake Nueva Cádiz site in Venezuela (1498–1543) and a pillaged site in Tiahuanaco, Bolivia. The two collections yielded similar results and we may infer they came from the same production centre. Here we focus on their provenance analysis, using an approach adapted to 15^th–17^th century polychrome soda glass beads found in the Americas and Europe. Our analysis points to the beads’ manufacture in Venice, using materials and methods compatible with Venetian cristallo. Because Nueva Cadiz beads are common in assemblages from South and Central America before 1560, Venice possibly supplied many beads exported from Europe in the 16^th century. However, beadmaking also thrived in other centres, especially after 1560. Our approach can ascertain the origin of soda glass beads made in France, Holland and elsewhere.

This paper focuses on the analysis of a thype of golden glass beads that has been recovered in different archaeological excavations carried out by INAH in Mexico City, to question two widely held ideas about these objects in New Spain. First, it focuses on the contexts in which they have appeared to challenge the idea that their use was reserved for the native or African origin population. Secondly, it combines archaeological data with historical sources to highlight that the viceroyalty developed a specialty of glassmaking dedicated to the manufacture of small objects, such as beads, which began in the 16th century and was consolidated in the 18th century with the development of a particular glass beads production.

This paper explores the potential of micro computed tomodensitometry (µCT) to contribute to the understanding of frit-core glass bead manufacture. µCT is a non-invasive technique that is used on a wide range of archaeological materials, including glass beads, to examine their manufacturing technology. In this preliminary study, we scanned a small sample of glass beads from two archaeological contexts which are related to the French trade network in North America: a 16^th century context at the Cartier-Roberval site (CeEu-4) located on the St. Lawrence River in present day Québec, and a 17^th century component of the Ellery site (BdGx-8), a Wendat site located in Simcoe County of present day Ontario. The resulting scans provide high-resolution (<7 µm voxel size) images, of the interior structures of glass beads. These interior structures offer clues about frit-core bead manufacture from the inside out, regardless of the exterior fragility of these archaeological glass beads.

During the first half of the 19^th century and perhaps slightly earlier, Indigenous individuals in the Plains region of North America began making their own glass beads by recycling beads obtained through trade. They crushed glass beads and reformed the crushed glass into different beads that are visually distinctive, fusing the glass in a hot fire. In 1804, Lewis and Clark witnessed this beadmaking by an Arikara woman and their journal entries describe the process. Additional accounts describe the manufacture of the beads as a culturally restricted skill—only certain members of tribes could make them, and the accounts also provide indications of the symbolic meaning of these Native-made beads. These beads are identified in some Plains glass bead assemblages.

Identifying the origin for Prosser beads may lead to a greater understanding of their distribution. In this study, x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of a collection of 102 Prosser beads of various colors found in southeastern Idaho indicate dramatic variation between elemental composition of the beads. The variations are examined to determine if coloring elements of copper and cobalt can be diagnostic of which factory manufactured the beads. Improved accuracy in determining the source of Prosser Molded beads using XRF analysis provides critical insights into the development of late 19^th and early 20^th century trade networks across two continents.

Most literature on beads in the IOW is from very early archaeological sites in South Asia dated to the BCE era. The Indian Ocean World (IOW) encompasses the overarching geographical boundaries of East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. What does the literature indicate for the distribution of beads in the early modern period (EMP) from 1450 to 1800 CE? I analyzed morphological and technological data of beads from two shipwrecks off the Philippines coast dated to 1460-1487 CE (Pandanan) and 1488-1505 CE (Santa Cruz). I contextualize bead cargo in maritime cultural landscape, which is the connectivities across open oceans, along inland waterways to hinterlands. In comparison to glass bead data from these EMP shipwrecks, what is the geographical distribution of stone beads in the IOW? Do stone or glass beads indicate different distinct patter

The University of West Florida has recovered at least 36 glass trade beads since the discovery of the Tristán de Luna y Arellano settlement in 2015. This paper compares the bead assemblage recovered from the Luna settlement site in Pensacola, Florida, with Soto's winter encampment, the Governor Martin site, in Tallahassee, Florida. It also examines other traditionally perceived Soto bead assemblages found at sites in the Coosa Valley in Northeastern Alabama and Northwestern Georgia. Nueva cádiz and 7-layer chevron beads make up the majority of the Luna bead assemblage. Their presence suggests that nueva cádiz and 7-layer chevrons found at inland Native sites in the southeastern interior are just as likely to have originated from the Luna expedition as from the Soto expedition.

European glass beads were intensively used for trading in the colonies of Africa, Asia and the Americas from the 16^th to the early 20^th century. Although found in large amounts in colonial sites, our knowledge of their production and their use in Europe is very limited. In this presentation, we discuss seven new collections from cemeteries, houses, and castles in Rouen, Bordeaux, Brouage, La Rochelle, Moutier-Rozeilles, Montmorin and Courcoury, France. Dating from the 16^th to the 19^th century, these sites reflect the use of glass beads by French people in their daily life. The beads were studied with LA-ICP-MS and were compared with those found in production sites across Europe: Amsterdam, London, Fichtelgebirge, and Venise (Gnalic Shipwreck).

Tracing Wendat patterns of interaction in the 17^th century AD is a long-standing research topic in Ontario and the broader Great Lakes region. To address this, new research employing both historical documentation and composition of the glass trade beads is beginning to untangle the networks of cross-Atlantic exchange that moved European-made materials into Indigenous contexts. Glass bead studies in Ontario have long included non-destructive chemical analysis by INAA. Through use of the minimally destructive LA-ICP-MS, we analysed 350 polychrome and monochrome beads from legacy collections from 13 Wendat sites attributed to the four Nations of the Wendat confederacy. We also provide additional new data from a Dutch workshop context. Our focus is on variation in base glass composition and trace elements in silica sources to examine whether there are noticeable differences between sites of different Nations, ages, and settlement sizes.

In the museum world, an invisible but firm boundary exists between ethnographic and archaeological collections. Ethnographic objects in general, and particularly those from other regions of the globe, are an underused resource in archaeological glass bead research, particularly within the U.S. In this study, beads that adorn ethnographic objects, including those acquired during the U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), one of the Smithsonian’s foundational collections, will be viewed as examples of potential comparative collections for archaeological studies. Incorporating objects like these into future research will also help position local or regional assemblages within a broader context of global trade. It also raises questions about colonialism and where to draw the line when working with materials gathered during an era of power imbalance.