| Abstract: |
Introduction: This paper deals with a type of bead that persisted for some two thousand years. Beads of the type are found, often in great quantities, throughout much of the eastern hemisphere. The beads are small, usually under 6 mm in diameter. They are undecorated and come in a limited range of colors: various hues of opaque red, orange, green, yellow, and "black," translucent blue and green, and, less often, translucent violet, amber, and clear and opaque white. In shape they may be oblates, tubes, or discs, but because the beads are so small the shape is often not recorded
because of their nature it is not usually necessary to do so. If these beads were not so ubiquitous they would be easy to overlook. But ubiquity is one of their hallmarks. They are found up and down the East African coast and penetrate far to the west. They are less common in the Persian Gulf and northern India, but again very numerous in southern India and Sri Lanka. They are found in great numbers throughout Southeast Asia and into southern China, Korea, and Japan. There is probably not a country in Asia that does not have them. Due to their sheer numbers, scholars have discussed these beads for six decades, mostly with an eye to discovering where they were made. Rather early in the search Evans (1928) found that some were made at Kuala Selinsing, Malaysia. Scholars who have been aware of his finds have referred to this site, but the majority of opinion preferred India as a source. Most conclusions have been vague and subject to change. Lamb (1965a: 95) postulated "a nomadic bead making group ... which established itself at various South-east Asian centres." As we shall see, this was the closest anyone came to the truth as it is now understood. The beads have been given two names by other scholars. Van der Sleen (1956, 1958: 210-211) introduced the term <i>Trade Wind Beads</i>, for beads found in East Africa. Though evocative, the term does not describe a class of beads, but all those coming via the trade winds, including both drawn and wound beads. As discussed in the first part of this series, drawn beads are cut from glass tubes and wound beads are made by twirling hot glass around a mandrel. They are very different beads, and the distinction is so basic that they cannot be considered together. Davison (1972: 149) adopted this term, although she was most interested in the drawn beads. Among those was a group with a similar chemical formula, which she named the "Trade Wind Beads Chemical Group," distinguished chiefly by a trace ofuranium. By inference in her publications and in private correspondence she indicated that she thought of these as "true Trade Wind Beads." As we shall see, there were so many makers of these beads that a single formula based primarily on one or a few trace elements can help distinguish only a single center, not the whole class. Lamb (1965a, b) introduced English readers to the term <i>mutisalah</i>, Indonesian/Malay for "false pearl" and used in the Lesser Sundas, especially Timor and Flores, to refer to small opaque orange or red heirloom beads. Van der Sleen (1966) criticized this term, claiming that mutisalah were not drawn beads but even smaller wound beads with a heavy lead content. Both were correct. The term is applied locally to both drawn and wound beads as long as they are the right size and color (S. Adhyatman, pers. comm.). The drawn ones are our Indo-Pacific beads
the wound ones are Chinese" coil" beads, to be discussed in part three of this series. In addition to this confusion, there is no reason to concentrate on only one or two colors of a class of beads. It is appropriate to introduce a new term for these beads and to define it precisely. <i>Indo-Pacific</i> is a shortened form of "Indo-Pacific Monochrome Drawn Glass Beads," which indicates the beads' distribution, color, method of manufacture, and material. It is further defined as such beads made by the <i>lada method</i>, which we shall discuss presently.
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