Glass Trade Beads from Reese Bay, Unalaska Island: Spatial and Temporal Patterns

Abstract

Abstract. Unalaska History and Archaeology Project researchers excavated several thousand glass trade beads from an Aleutian longhouse at the Reese Bay site on Unalaska Island, Alaska. This paper provides a description of the beads, a discussion of their use by Russian explorers and Alaska Natives, and an analysis of the horizontal and vertical distribution of the beads within the longhouse. Comparison to other Alaskan sites revealed that the composition of the Reese Bay trade bead assemblage is consistent with occupation during the early Russian period. Several factors, both behavioral and depositional, created and affected the spatial patterning of the beads within the site: roof fall from the dismantling of the longhouse superstructure; periodic housecleaning by the residents of the longhouse; bead working techniques and location preferences; and changing status relationships within the longhouse. The spatial and temporal patterning of the glass trade beads from the Reese Bay site provides insight into the lives of the inhabitants.

A Precolumbian Presence of Venetian Glass Trade Beads in Arctic Alaska

“…Palabras clave: esquimal prehistórico reciente, cuentas comerciales de vidrio veneciano, presencia precolombina, contacto entre Eurasia/Nativo de América del Norte B y most accounts, the introduction of glass trade beads in Alaska began in AD 1741 when Vitus Bering made initial contact with Native peoples in southern Alaska (Bundy et al 2003;Francis 1994;Grover 2016; unless otherwise noted, all dates in this report are AD). Technically, that event ended Alaska's prehistoric period, and although Russian traders were active in southern Alaska for the next 125 years, their direct influence in the Arctic (i.e., north of the Arctic Circle) was slight (Ray 1975:129).…”

“…Certain Russian trade materials—including tobacco, metal, and beads—did trickle north into arctic Alaska during the last half of the eighteenth century, although it is likely that some exotic goods may have come directly from Siberia via Bering Strait–native trade rather than the Russians (Grover 2016; Spencer 1959:378). Although the majority of the beads traded in Alaska by the Russians were drawn beads manufactured in Europe or Russia, some beads produced in China known loosely today as “Padre” (Blair et al 2009:82) or “Cook” beads (Bundy et al 2003; Crowell 1997; Grover 2016) were also traded (Crowell et al 2008; Dumond and VanStone 1995). The Chinese beads were manufactured by a procedure called “winding” (Francis 1986:36), a distinctly different manufacturing technique than that used to make the drawn beads discussed in this report (see Bead section).…”

Cod Fishing in Russian America: The Archaeology of a 19th-Century Alutiiq Work Camp on Alaska's Kodiak Island

“…Most significant is the lack of white-centered Cornaline d'Aleppo beads because sometime between 1840 and 1860 this bead type came to supplant the clear, amber, and light green-centered varieties like those recovered at Mikt'sqaq Angayuk (Bundy et al 2003;Clark, personal communication 2011;Crowell 1997a:171;Knecht 1985;Grover 2002:137). These were larger plain hollowware vessels of leadglazed faience.…”