Glass Beads as Indicators of Contact and Trade in Southern Africa ca. AD 900 - AD 1250.

ABSTRACT

Luxury goods, used in mediaeva1 long distance trade ca. AD 900-1250, found an important

market among the Iron Age peoples of southern Africa. Indirect evidence of this trade can

be seen in the form of archaeological collections of glass beads at sites throughout Africa

and Southeast Asia. Thousands of beads have been found at Iron Age sites in the eastern

Transvaal Lowveld and at inland sites along the Limpopo Valley and in Botswana. Similar

looking types of beads, referred to as small seed beads, were also used in the Muslim

mercantile networks and maritime trade in the Indian Ocean, and have been found at coeval

sites throughout Southeast Asia, particularly at entrepot ports in· India, eastern and western

Malaysia and Thailand. At the commencement of the Iron Age occupation of southern

African sites, glass beads of any kind were very rare.

From ca. AD 900-1000, Islamic influences spread southward along the African east coast.

This coincided with the marked increase of glass beads found in southern Africa. Their

presence is direct evidence of foreign industry, external trade and contact.

The beads are widely believed to have originated in India, and to have been distributed

through Arab traders in the Indian Ocean. Exports would have included gold, possibly

ivory, and other raw materials. Archaeology has much to contribute towards documenting

these activities. The identity and location of the bead sources is important to an

understanding of early contact and economic and political developments in southern Africa.

The trade connection coincided with the beginning of a critica1 sequence of events in the

cultura1 history of southern Africa, which culminated in the formation of an incipient state

at Great Zimbabwe (AD 1250-1450) from precursors at Mapungubwe and related sites.

This period corresponds in time with an important episode in Islamic history, when

Muslims conquered Egypt' and the Fatimids moved their capital eastwards, in AD 969, from

Tunisia to al-Qahira (Cairo) next to the well established cosmopolitan port entrepot of alFustat

(now old Cairo). Texts, chronicles, glass weights, scriba1 notes and receipts confirm

that it was already a successful industrial centre with a history of glass-making when the

Fatimids gained control of Egypt.

In this thesis I have addressed two aspects of research to investigate the trade networks

associated with internal and foreign contact: (1) the manufacturing origins of the beads,

and, (2) who brought them to southern Africa. Glass material from Egypt, Palestine, Syria

and Southeast Asia was used for comparison, and as possible source material. Scientific ·

techniques were used to confirm these operations.

The beads were described, classified, and sampled selectively for physical and chemical

analysis. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was

used to determine the rare earth elements (REE) composition. The results show that a

particular glass, used to make beads in Egypt, is the same as that used to make some of the

beads found at sites in the northern and eastern Transvaal. They document the existence of

a trade link with the Mediterranean via the Red Sea 1000 years ago.

Until riow, both the origin of this contact and the extent· of indigenous responses were

largely unknown. These findings cast a different light on maritime trade along the east coast

of Africa from a millennium ago.