Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:34:51.864Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Precolumbian Presence of Venetian Glass Trade Beads in Arctic Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

Michael L. Kunz Open the ORCID record for Michael L. Kunz [Opens in a new window]  and
Robin O. Mills
Michael L. Kunz*
Affiliation:
University of Alaska Museum of the North, 1962 Yukon Drive, Fairbanks, AK99775, USA
Robin O. Mills
Affiliation:
Bureau of Land Management, Fairbanks District Office, 222 University Avenue, Fairbanks, AK99709, USA (rmills@blm.gov)
*
(mike.kunz42@gmail.com, corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Excavation at three Late Prehistoric Eskimo sites in arctic Alaska has revealed the presence of Venetian glass trade beads in radiocarbon-dated contexts that predate Columbus's discovery of the Western Hemisphere. The bead variety, commonly known as “Early Blue” and “Ichtucknee Plain,” has been confirmed by expert examination and comparative Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). The beads are present in sites throughout the Caribbean, the eastern coast of Central and North America, and the eastern Great Lakes region, where they are commonly found in sites dating between approximately AD 1550 and 1750, although a diminishing presence continues into the early 1800s. Beads of this variety have not previously been reported from Alaska. Ascribed to Venetian production by their precolumbian age, the beads challenge the currently accepted chronology for the development of their production methodology, availability, and presence in the Americas. In the absence of trans-Atlantic communication, the most likely route these beads traveled from Europe to northwestern Alaska is across Eurasia and over the Bering Strait. This is the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the Western Hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent.

Excavación en tres sitios prehistóricos esquimales situados en el ártico de Alaska ha demostrado la presencia de cuentas venecianas de vidrio fechadas a la época precolombina por datación mediante carbono 14. La identificación positiva de estas cuentas de Tipo IIa40 también conocidas como Early Blue y Ichtucknee Plain se ha confirmado por análisis experto y análisis instrumental comparativo de activación neutrón. Esta clase de cuenta está presente en sitios a través del Caribe, la costa oriental de Norteamérica y América Central y la región oriental de los Grandes Lagos donde se las encuentra comúnmente en sitios fechados entre 1550 y 1750, aunque su cantidad disminuye continuamente hasta los 1800s. Esta clase de cuentas no se ha documentado en Alaska anteriormente. Atribuidas a la producción veneciana por su edad precolombina, las cuentas contradicen la cronología aceptada actualmente del desarrollo de su método de producción, disponibilidad y presencia en las Américas. En la ausencia de comunicación transatlántica, la única ruta que las cuentas podrían haber viajado de Europa al noroeste de Alaska era por Eurasia y el estrecho de Bering. Este es el primer caso de la presencia indudable de materiales europeos en sitios prehistóricos en el hemisferio oeste llevados por el transporte terrestre a través del continente Euroasiático.

Keywords

Late Prehistoric EskimoVenetian glass trade beadsprecolumbian occurrenceEurasia/North American Native contactesquimal prehistórico recientecuentas comerciales de vidrio venecianopresencia precolombinacontacto entre Eurasia/Nativo de América del Norte
Type
Report
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 395 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Ackerman, Daniel, Griffin, Daniel, Hobbie, Sarah E., and Finlay, Jacques C. 2017 Arctic Shrub Growth Trajectories Differ across Soil Moisture Levels. Global Change Biology 23:4294–4302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ackerman, Daniel E., Griffin, Daniel, Hobbie, Sarah E., Popham, Kelly, Jones, Erin, and Finlay, Jacques C. 2018 Uniform Shrub Growth Response to June Temperature across the North Slope of Alaska. Environmental Research Letters 13(4). DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/aab326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, William H. 2003 Dating Historical Sites: The Importance of Understanding Time Lag in the Acquisition, Curation, Use, and Disposal of Artifacts. Historical Archaeology 37(2):38–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreu-Hayle, Laia, Gaglioti, Benjamin V., Berner, Logan T., Levesque, Mathieu, Anchukaitis, Kevin J., Goetz, Scott J., and D'Arrigo, Rosanne 2020 A Narrow Window of Summer Temperatures Associated with Shrub Growth in Arctic Alaska. Environmental Research Letters 15(10):105012. DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/ab897f.Google Scholar
Bennett, Monte 1983 Glass Trade Beads from Central New York. In Proceedings of the 1982 Glass Trade Bead Conference, edited by Hayes, Charles F. III, pp. 51–58. Research Records 16. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Bergreen, Laurence 2007 Marco Polo from Venice to Xanadu. Vintage Books, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R. 1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45:4–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, Elliot H., Pendleton, Lorann S. A., and Francis, Peter J. Jr. 2009 The Beads of St. Catherine's Island. Anthropological Papers 89. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Bockstoce, John R. 1986 Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Bockstoce, John R. 2009 Furs and Frontiers in the Far North: The Contest among Native and Foreign Nations for the Bering Strait Fur Trade. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Bradley, James W. 1983 Blue Crystals and Other Trinkets: Glass Beads from 16th and Early 17th Century New England. In Proceedings of the 1982 Glass Trade Bead Conference, edited by Hayes, Charles F. III, pp. 111–126. Research Records 16. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Bundy, Barbra E., McCartney, Allen P., and Veltre, Douglas W. 2003 Glass Trade Beads from Reese Bay, Unalaska Island: Spatial and Temporal Patterns. Arctic Anthropology 40(1):29–47.Google Scholar
Burch, Ernest S. Jr. 1975 Inter-Regional Transportation in Traditional Northwest Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 17(2):1–11.Google Scholar
Burch, Ernest S. Jr. 1976 Overland Travel Routes in Northwest Alaska. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 18(1):1–10.Google Scholar
Burch, Ernest S. Jr. 2005 Alliance and Conflict: The World System of the Inupiaq Eskimos. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, Ernest S. Jr. 2006 Social Life in Northwest Alaska: The Structure of Inupiaq Eskimo Nations. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Cooper, Harold K. 2012 Innovation and Prestige among Northern Hunter-Gatherers: Late Prehistoric Copper Use in Alaska and Yukon. American Antiquity 77:565–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, Harold K., Mason, Owen K., Mair, Victor, Hoffecker, John F., and Speakman, Jeffery R. 2016 Evidence of Eurasian Metal Alloys on the Alaskan Coast in Prehistory. Journal of Archaeological Science 74:176–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowell, Aron L. 1997 Archaeology and the Capitalist World System: A Study from Russian America. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowell, Aron L., Yesner, David R., Eagle, Rita, and Hanson, Diane K. 2008 A Historic Alutiiq Village on the Outer Kenai Coast: Subsistence and Trade in the Early Russian Contact Period. Alaska Journal of Anthropology 6(1–2):225–251.Google Scholar
Davis, Craig W., Linck, Dana C., Schoenberg, Kenneth M., and Shields, Harvey M. 1981 Slogging, Humping, and Mucking through the NPR-A, Vol. 2. Occasional Paper 25. Anthropology and Historic Preservation, Cooperative Park Studies Unit, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Deagan, Kathleen 1987 Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500–1800, Vol. 1. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Dumond, Don E., and VanStone, James W. 1995 Paugvik: A Nineteenth-Century Native Village on Bristol Bay, Alaska. Fieldiana Anthropology 24. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eby, Nelson 2017 Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). Electronic document, https://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/geochemsheets/techniques/INAA.html, accessed May 9, 2019.Google Scholar
Francis, Peter J. Jr. 1986 Chinese Glass Beads: A Review of the Evidence. Occasional Papers No. 2. Center for Bead Research, Lake Placid, New York.Google Scholar
Francis, Peter J. Jr. 1988 The Glass Trade Beads of Europe: Their Manufacture, Their History, and Their Identification. World of Beads Monograph Series 8. Lapis Route Books, Lake Placid, New York.Google Scholar
Francis, Peter J. Jr. 1994 Beads at the Crossroads of Continents. In Anthropology of the North Pacific Rim, edited by Fitzhugh, William W., and Chaussonnet, Valerie, pp.281–305. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Francis, Peter J. Jr. 1998a Analysis of Indo-Pacific Beads. Margaretologist 11(1):9–14.Google Scholar
Francis, Peter J. Jr. 1998b The Venetian Bead Story 1. Margaretologist 11(2):2–11.Google Scholar
Francis, Peter J. Jr. 2008 The Venetian Bead Story. BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers 20:62–80.Google Scholar
Gasparetto, Astone 1958 Il vetro di Murano: Dal origini ad oggi. Neri Pozza, Venice.Google Scholar
Giddings, J. Louis Jr., and Anderson, Douglas D. 1986 Beach Ridge Archeology of Cape Krusenstern: Eskimo and Pre-Eskimo Settlements around Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Gilbert-Young, Sabra A. 2004 The Archaeology of a Severely Vandalized Site, 49-MIS-032, at Lake Kaiyak, Noatak National Preserve, Northwest, Alaska. Master's thesis, Anthropology Department, Washington State University, Pullman.Google Scholar
Grover, Margan Allyn 2016 Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric Glass Beads in Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 53(2):69–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gubser, Nicholas J. 1965 The Nunamiut Eskimo, Hunters of Caribou. W. W. Norton, New York.Google Scholar
Hancock, Ron V. G. 2005 Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) Results on Select Blue Glass Beads from the Punyik Point Archaeological Site. Contracted by and on file at the Bureau of Land Management, Fairbanks District Office, Fairbanks, Alaska.Google Scholar
Hancock, Ron V. G., Chafe, Anne, and Kenyon, Ian 1994 Neutron Activation Analysis of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century European Blue Glass Trade Beads from the Eastern Great Lakes Area of North America. Archaeometry 36:253–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingstad, Helge 1954 Nunamiut: Among Alaska's Inland Eskimos. Unwin Brothers, London.Google Scholar
Irving, William N. 1964 Punyik Point and the Arctic Small Tool Tradition. PhD dissertation, Anthropology Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Karklins, Karlis 1993 The a speo Method of Heat Rounding Drawn Glass Beads and Its Archaeological Manifestations. Beads 5:27–36.Google Scholar
Karklins, Karlis 2012 Guide to the Description and Classification of Glass Beads Found in the Americas. Beads 24:62–90.Google Scholar
Karklins, Karlis 2016 How to Describe and Interpret Glass Trade Beads. Laval University Lecture Video. Original lecture April 8, 2016; YouTube video, 37:22, February 2, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=QRRTUJxiw5w, accessed October 4, 2018.Google Scholar
Kenyon, Ian, Hancock, Ron G. V., and Aufreiter, Susan 1995 Neutron Activation Analysis of AD 1660–1930 European Copper-Coloured Blue Glass Trade Beads from Ontario, Canada. Archaeometry 37:323–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyon, Ian T., and Kenyon, Thomas 1983 Comments on 17th Century Glass Trade Beads from Ontario. In Proceedings of the 1982 Glass Trade Bead Conference, edited by Hayes, Charles F. III, pp. 111–126. Research Records 16. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Kidd, Kenneth E., and Kidd, Martha A. 1970 A Classification System for Glass Beads for the Use of Field Archaeologists. Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 1. Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, National and Historic Parks Branch, National Historic Sites Service, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Kunz, Michael 2005 The Denbigh Flint Complex at Punyik Point, Etivlik Lake, Alaska. Alaska Journal of Anthropology 3(2):101–115.Google Scholar
Mason, Owen K. 1998 The Contest between the Ipiutak, Old Bering Sea, and Birnirk Polities and the Origin of Whaling during the First Millennium A.D. along Bering Strait. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17:240–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCartney, Allen P. 1988 Late Prehistoric Metal Use in the New World Arctic. In The Late Prehistoric Development of Alaska's Native People, edited by Shaw, Robert D., Harritt, Roger K., and Dumond, Don E., pp. 57–79. Aurora Monograph Series Vol. 4. Alaska Anthropological Association, Anchorage, Alaska.Google Scholar
Miller, Henry M., Pogue, Dennis J., and Smolek, Michael A. 1983 Beads from the Seventeenth Century Chesapeake. In Proceedings of the 1982 Glass Trade Bead Conference, edited by Hayes, Charles F. III, pp. 127–144. Research Records 16. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Ray, Dorothy J. 1975 The Eskimos of the Bering Strait, 1650–1898. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Beck, J. Warren, Blackwell, Paul G., Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Buck, Caitlin E., Cheng, Hai, Edwards, R. Lawrence, Friedrich, Michael, Grootes, Pieter M, Guilderson, Thomas P., Haflidason, Haflidi, Hajdas, Irka, Hatté, Christine, Heaton, Timothy J., Hogg, Alan G., Haughen, Konrad A., Kaiser, K. Felix, Kromer, Bernd, Manning, Sturt W., Niu, Mu, Reimer, Ron W., Richards, David A., Scott, E. Marian, Southon, John R., Staff, Richard A., Turney, Christian S. M., and van der Plicht, Johannes 2013 IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Lester A. 2005 European Glass Beads from the Punyik Point Site (XHP-308), Etivlik Lake, Alaska, ca. Late 16th to Mid-18th Centuries. Report contracted by and on file at the Bureau of Land Management, Fairbanks District Office, Fairbanks, Alaska.Google Scholar
Shirar, Scott 2011 Late Holocene Chronology of the Noatak and Kobuk Rivers. Alaska Journal of Anthropology 9(2):1–16.Google Scholar
Smith, Marvin T. 1983 Chronology from Glass Beads: The Spanish Period in the Southeast, 1513–1670. In Proceedings of the 1982 Glass Trade Bead Conference, edited by Hayes, Charles F. III, pp, 147–158. Research Records 16. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Spencer, Robert F. 1959 The North Alaskan Eskimo: A Study in Ecology and Society. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 171. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, Ron W. 2020 CALIB 7.1. Electronic document, http://calib.org, accessed May 5, 2020.Google Scholar
Tape, Ken D., Hallinger, Martin, Welker, Jeffrey M., and Ruess, Roger W. 2012 Landscape Heterogeneity of Shrub Expansion in Arctic Alaska. Ecosystems 15:711–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Robert E., and Bar-Yosef, Ofer 2016 Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective. 2nd ed. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Wayman, Michael L., and Cooper, H. Kory 2005 Analysis of Copper and Iron Objects from Punyik Point. Report contracted by and on file at the Bureau of Land Management, Fairbanks District Office, Fairbanks, Alaska.Google Scholar