Even before America’s discovery, Venetian glass beads reached the Native American Indians in Northwest America via eastern long-distance trade, researchers report. According to dating, the small pieces of jewelry arrived there between 1440 and 1480. Accordingly, they had an astonishing history of transport behind them: From their Italian place of manufacture, the route apparently led them through Asia to Eastern Siberia and from there finally over the Bering Sea to the northwestern tip of America.
Glass beads from Europe are not exactly uncommon finds found at archaeological sites by Native Americans. Because after Columbus’ discovery of the New World in 1492, they were often used by the newcomers as barter goods with the locals and were then further spread within the indigenous peoples. The discovery of a total of ten blue glass beads during excavations at three sites in northern Alaska seemed unusual, but initially not entirely surprising. Because it was to be assumed that they got there after the discovery of America.
Spectacular dating result
The sites were hunting bases of the former indigenous people in inland Alaska. Some of the pea-sized hole-punched beads were found in association with pieces of metal that could have been part of a necklace or bracelet. In addition, archaeologists discovered plant fibers, which were probably a string made from the bark of a bush willow. Michael Kunz from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and Robin Mills from the Bureau of Land Management Fairbanks were able to use these organic residues to draw conclusions about the age of the glass beads. So they had radiocarbon dating done.
“When the result came, we almost fell over,” said Kunz. “According to the dating, the plant that provided the material lived in the 1400s.” This finding was later confirmed by the dating of charcoal found near the pearls. It finally became apparent that the glass beads must have arrived in the interior of Alaska sometime between 1440 and 1480 – years before Columbus even thought of his epochal voyage of discovery. This meant that these little objects had a big story to tell. “Because it was clear that the glass beads came from Europe,” says Kunz. Material analyzes and comparisons of the pearls then revealed their exact place of manufacture: Venice.
Well-traveled gems
But how could they have gotten from the canals of the famous city-state to the remote tundra of northern Alaska? Apparently via a long chain of transports eastwards, explain Kunz and Mills. In the 1400s, according to them, the trade city of Venice was already well connected to Asia. The scientists say that the pearls could initially have traveled to China in a horse-drawn carriage along the Silk Road. From there, the Venetian pearls then apparently found their way to the natives of the western bank of the Bering Sea in the Russian Far East.
A trader may have stowed them there in his kayak and took them on the journey east across the Bering Sea to Alaska, the researchers explain. At the narrowest point, around 84 kilometers had to be covered across the open ocean. He was certainly not aware that his goal was the shores of a “New World”. Kunz and Mills believe that the pearls probably arrived at an ancient indigenous trading center called Shashalik, which was north of what is now Kotzebue. From there, they apparently got overland to the localities in the interior of Alaska, explain Kunz and Mills.
Source: University of Alaska, Article: American Antiquity, doi: 10.1017 / aaq.2020.100