THE ALLURE OF THE EXOTIC: THE SOCIAL USE OF TRANSLUCENT BEADS DURING 4TH-TO-2NDMILLENNIA BC
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-11-13

In the Iberian Peninsula a wide range of raw materials (over twenty minerals) accounting for all the soils colors were used in the beadmaking. However, despite the available diversity of colors and minerals Iberia beadmakers had certain color preference. Greenstone overwhelmingly dominates the archaeological record. Because of this, beads raw material and color diversity has been systematically disregarded, despite many studies have shown an ample variety of minerals used for beadmaking in Prehistoric Europe. Systematic studies concerning mineralogical sourcing or characterization do not yet exist for beadworks in the Iberian Peninsula, not even a general inventory of context where beads may be found. Indeed, no systematic studies have been done on sourcing minerals others than variscite-like minerals. Besides this, the ubiquitous natural occurrence of most silicate and carbonate minerals results in the assumption of local procurement versus the non-local of variscite-like minerals; and the consideration of non-local as prestigious, based on the basic assumption that non-local materials are rare, exotic, and alluring, by the fact that they are brought from far places, what make them desirable social for elites self-presentation and social action. Within this general context transparent or translucent raw material are expected to play a key role in elite self-presentation and social action. These translucent raw materials of different colors (pink, green, yellow, purple …) appear in an extremely low percentage within the funerary assemblages of Western European Prehistory, what means they are rare, and therefore alluring. By that reason should have attracted elite’s attention. This paper records by the very first time, after Cardoso pioneering work on Portuguese fluorite beads, a comprehensive study of Western Iberia translucent beads specially focused on fluorite and the role these beads could have played during social action in European Late Prehistory societies.


Author(s): Odriozola, Carlos - Garrido-Cordero, José Ángel (Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad de Sevilla) - Sousa,
Ana Catarina - Gonçalves, Vítor S. - Andrade, Marco António (UNIARQ-Universidade de Lisboa)