Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2007, Page 14

Elín Hreiðarsdóttir
jet, 50, 15%
amber, 98, 29%
glass, 107, 30%
other, 12, 4%
wood, 29, 9%
bone/teeth, 6, 2%
stone, 38, 11%
Figure 2. Pie chart showing breakdown of beads by material.
tor it was at first thought to be a stone
but was later identified as a melted, black
glass bead (Margrét Hermanns-Auðardótt-
ir 1986). Without examining the bead it
is impossible to verify that it is indeed a
glass bead, let alone give any information
about the method of manufacture or its
origin. It can therefore be stated that none
of the undamaged glass beads from later
time found in a dated context in Iceland
are definitely older than the 16th century.
To place the Icelandic corpus in
context, I will first give a short overview
of glass bead production in Europe from
16th to the end of 19th century; where
and how major bead types were made in
this period and then broadly classify the
Icelandic glass beads using the classifica-
tion ofKidd and Kidd (1970) and Sprague
(1985) with additions and corrections of
Karklins (1985).
Glass bead making in
Post Medieval Europe
Venice in Italy has the longest and most
prestigious history of glass bead manu-
facture in Europe in later centuries. It is
believed that some glass bead production
took place there from the time it was first
settled in 6th century (Kidd 1979:17-18).
A large-scale glass industry started to
develop in the 12th century and by the
14th century Venetian glass had become
renowned throughout Europe and was
the most important industry of the region
from the 13th century (Trivellato 2001:47-
50; Kidd 1979:17 and Sleen 1967:113).
Venetian glass beads were imported in
large quantities to the New World from
the 15th century and it is believed that
even if large-scale glass bead production
was carried out in various other places in
Europe at the same period no other place
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