Green Bead
In the summer of 2021, while out walking the eroded shoreline of a known archaeological site, I discovered a green tubular shaped object. This was on the same day and at the same site that I recovered a copper bracelet while camping up Lac Seul over the July 1st weekend. Once I washed off most of the clay adhesion, I could see the circular hole running through the center and realized that the item was probably a bead. At first I thought it was a green glass bead. But, in my hand it felt somewhat heavier than glass and after looking closely at how rough the exterior was I thought it might be a stone bead. How cool is that? The bead has a weight of 3.5 grams, a length of 2.5 cm in length and a diameter that varies between 6.1 and 7.1 mm because the shape is ovate rather than circular. (3-D model courtesy of Lakehead University Anthropology Department)
However, a few months after finding the green “stone” bead I was in Winnipeg and had the opportunity to show the artifact to my friend and colleague Kevin Brownlee who, at the time, was the curator of archaeology at the Manitoba Museum. His opinion was that it was not a stone bead but instead was manufactured from glass. He was unable to find a match within the comparative collection of beads at the museum so estimated the date to be pre-1800s. It sure didn’t look like glass to me but, as indicated by Kevin, early period glass manufacturing technology was less refined than during later periods and likely would produce an object that looked like this.
Anyway, he took some pictures and forwarded them to Dr. Heather Walder who is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse.Her expertise is in using compositional analysis methods to study glass and metal artifacts from the 17th and 18th century. For additional information on this topic click the link to view her doctoral dissertation titled: A Thousand Beads to Each Nation: Exchange, Interactions and Technological Practices in the Upper Great Lakes c. 1630-1730. (link provided courtesy of Heather Walder).
Based on the pictures emailed to her (and not an examination of the bead itself), she provided some pretty cool information. First of all, the bead material is an opaque glass, partially degraded or corroded. It is likely colored with the element copper to achieve that green-blue color. Also, “true” green glass beads are pretty rare even in the 18th and 17th centuries, but it might be a variety of green/blue or turquoise tube. Furthermore, she indicated that the bead may fit the Kidd and Kidd (1970) bead typology for something like a type Ia10, but this type is not highly temporally diagnostic within Ontario’s glass bead period system. Dr. Walder also stated only having a single bead was not useful with respects to making inferences regarding a time period other than it could possibly be from the pre-1800s, but recoveries of this type of bead have been made from an encampment area dated to approximately 1815 beside the Beasley site (see figure 5n: green glass tube bead) located at the western edge of Lake Ontario near where the city of Hamilton is situated today.
So my idea of this artifact being a stone bead was incorrect (which is okay because I have been wrong before). First of all, I appreciate the fact that I was able to get feedback and information about this object from other people who have a great deal of expertise. Secondly, regardless of whether this item dates to a pre-1800s or an early 1800s time period, this is a very old glass bead! The underlying, and as yet untold, “tale of the green glass bead” pertains to the mystery of how it travelled to and was deposited at this specific site on the amazing lake known as Lac Seul.
