The Indo-Pacific Bead: What It Can Tell Us [F-14-30]
| Presenter: | Shinu Anna Abraham |
|---|---|
| Location: | SUNY Potsdam: Maxcy 104 |
| Classes: | 1 Session 1.5 hours |
| Dates: | Thu 3:00 PM 10/16 |
| Status: | CLOSED |
Print Info
Beads are often undervalued as artifacts, primarily due to challenges in exploiting them fully as material culture. However, beads can help archaeologists better understand a broad range of ancient behaviors including socio-political organization, craft production, and trade relations. For example, the focus of this presentation, the tiny Indo-Pacific glass bead, is slowly emerging as a source of new insights about the role of early South India as a member of the vast maritime exchange networks that crisscrossed the Indian Ocean in the first millennium AD.
Shinu Anna Abraham is an archaeologist with a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught for 12 years at SLU and is now chair of the Department of Anthropology. Her specialty is ancient Indian Ocean trade and the study of early south Indian socio-economic development about two thousand years ago.