Indian Glass Beads in Northeast Africa Between the First and Sixth Centuries CE

Beads, next to pottery, are the most abundant archaeological material in Northeast Africa, often constituting the only evidence for direct and indirect trade contacts in archaeological records. While the connection of Northeast Africa to the Mediterranean world is well recognised, its link with Asian cultures is less known. This paper presents the chronological and spatial distribution of Indian glass beads in the territories of ancient Egypt, Nubia and Aksum during a time of intensive Indian Ocean trade. Chemical compositional analysis of selected samples confirms the provenance of monochrome and bichrome drawn and rounded beads to be of South Indian/Sri Lankan origin. Looking for a more comprehensive picture of South Indian/Sri Lankan glass bead imports to Northeast Africa, many museum and site bead collections were macroscopically studied. As a result of this research, some Indian beads are traced to Egyptian Red Sea ports in the Early Roman period that is between the first century BCE and the third century CE. However, large-scale glass bead imports are evident at sites on the Red Sea Coast and in the interior of Northeast Africa in Late Antiquity, i.e. between the fourth and the sixth century CE.