A Taunton River NA Trade Bead Finds

[MAMucker]

Sorry folks, Not a string of beads. It’s just my one and ONLY NA Trade bead find. But, it’s a nice one, and I could use some assistance with identification.

It appears to be made from an orange agate. It’s faceted, hand polished, and drilled from both ends (not sure how that was done as the hole is so small.

I did the best I could with the pictures, but I can try to take better ones if requested.

 

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[IMAUDIGGER]

That's a beauty.

 

[Older The Better]

Congrats I’ve got a whopping 2 myself, mine are just plain white glass.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Color is intense. Could be carnelian. Nice find! Gary

 

[Charl]

Great score! I've always loved the two extremes: Paleo, and Contact, when folks like Roger Williams and the Pilgrims and Puritans were settling in. Found a couple of brass trade points, and a button mold, but as for beads, just two beads melted together into a tiny lump of colored glass....

 

[MAMucker]

Great score! I've always loved the two extremes: Paleo, and Contact, when folks like Roger Williams and the Pilgrims and Puritans were settling in. Found a couple of brass trade points, and a button mold, but as for beads, just two beads melted together into a tiny lump of colored glass....

Thank you Charl!
It was a heck of a project cleaning out the hole due to the off-set. I can’t imagine how it was drilled.
I had read a little about pre-contact period NA trade-beads. And if I had to guess, this is one. But, historical data on these seems to be scarce.
Any idea where I might find more info?

 

[Charl]

Thank you Charl!
It was a heck of a project cleaning out the hole due to the off-set. I can’t imagine how it was drilled.
I had read a little about pre-contact period NA trade-beads. And if I had to guess, this is one. But, historical data on these seems to be scarce.
Any idea where I might find more info?

I've been gone all day, or I would have replied sooner. I did have a good online reference years ago, but can't locate it at the moment. If I find it, I'll post it. I do think your bead is early, so no later then late 17th century. Here's a bibliography that might provide some leads:

https://beadresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bibliography.pdf

 

[Megalodon]

Gorgeous bead. Wish I'd known about them when I grew up there and spent so many hours along the Taunton R.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

That's a nice Trade Bead and it may be Carnelian. I don't have any from the east except for the one Colbalt Blue one I found years ago. I have a lot from California and other western states though. All Glass Trade Beads.

 

[Jon Stewart]

As mentioned, looks to be carnelian. I have a point that I found made of carnelian.

 

[joshuaream]

I am not sure about yours, but many of those made it through Portuguese, Dutch or English trade from Khambhat India. People have been making long, faceted carnelian beads there for 5,000 years.

This is the same little town that produces all of those eBay fakes today.

This link will take you to an overview page, you can open a PDF that gives a lot of detail about them.
https://www.harappa.com/content/carnelian-bead-production-khambat-india-ethnoarchaeological-study

 

[EARL51]

Grew up in Dighton on that river. Lots of artifacts, and many more to be found. Nice.

 

[monsterrack]

That is a very nice trade bead from what I can tell it could have come from a number of places, but more than likely it was made in Idar-Oberstien Germany which was the carnelian bead making center of the world at one time. Age would be from 1600-1800 and the Dutch were shipping them into the Boston area during that time. Carnelian can be found all over the world like Brazil, Uruguay, India, Madagascar and even here in the states. When it comes out of the ground it is most of the time a dull yellow or brownish color. To get the bright colors they heat treat it and it does it's magic. From your photo the holes look to have been drilled with a historic period drill bit because they have the same Dia. through the stone and when drilled with flint it will have a cone shape to the hole. Some ancient stone bits were no larger than a grain of rice. The Dutch traded beads and traded for Canelian all over the world to places like China ,Sumatra, India, Africa and the USA. Great find for sure

 

[Megalodon]

Grew up in Dighton on that river. Lots of artifacts, and many more to be found. Nice.

I left Taunton about 45 years ago. The river was so polluted then - you had to hold your breath where the textile mills dumped their waste.

 

[Jeff H]

I left Taunton about 45 years ago. The river was so polluted then - you had to hold your breath where the textile mills dumped their waste.

I grew up in Somerset and remember the stink when I was a kid. The river is MUCH cleaner now.

 

[Jeff H]

That is nice!

 

[MAMucker]

Thank you everyone for all information, history, knowledge and comments. As I stated, this is the only NA stone bead I have found.

Does anyone know where I might confirm if it’s either Agate or Carnelian?

 

[MAMucker]

That is a very nice trade bead from what I can tell it could have come from a number of places, but more than likely it was made in Idar-Oberstien Germany which was the carnelian bead making center of the world at one time. Age would be from 1600-1800 and the Dutch were shipping them into the Boston area during that time. Carnelian can be found all over the world like Brazil, Uruguay, India, Madagascar and even here in the states. When it comes out of the ground it is most of the time a dull yellow or brownish color. To get the bright colors they heat treat it and it does it's magic. From your photo the holes look to have been drilled with a historic period drill bit because they have the same Dia. through the stone and when drilled with flint it will have a cone shape to the hole. Some ancient stone bits were no larger than a grain of rice. The Dutch traded beads and traded for Canelian all over the world to places like China ,Sumatra, India, Africa and the USA. Great find for sure

Great info Monsterrack. So many good identifiers there. Could be Carnelian. The hole being drilled (even) same in diameter as apposed to conical, indicating a historic period drill. Something else to research.

Still, it had to be quite a project drilling out such a small bead. The manufacturing process had to be tedious. Which, brings me to the question of the apparent hand polishing that is seen on this bead. Im guessing that the Faceting/flat surface polishing is an indication of an older low production method of finishing.

See:
http://www.ancientbead.com/Ancient_bead_production.html

I found the following information about ancient drilling online to be enlightening as well:

https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&context=beads

 

[unclemac]

Thank you everyone for all information, history, knowledge and comments. As I stated, this is the only NA stone bead I have found.

Does anyone know where I might confirm if it’s either Agate or Carnelian?

carnelian is just a siliceous stone (chalcedony in this case) with a higher content of iron oxide which gives it a red color. Yes, an agate too which is a looser classification. Some folk will get really picky and say that agate needs to have banding but most of us don't bother to discriminate. Your bead would be called both and no need to wonder.