![]() Later, many other areas began to produce glass beads. The production of glass beads date back to the 14th century B.C.E. It is fascinating how these early cultures used beads. Many of these written texts that refer to embroidery, embellishments, and multicolored beadwork range from Egypt, Hebrew texts, early Mesopotamia, Indian, Chinese, etc. Not only do we have artifacts that display beautiful bead weaving in Ancient Egypt and other early cultures, but there are also depictions painted on the walls of tombs and in early written texts. It is unclear whether the Egyptians developed many of the weaving techniques archaeologists have found today, or if techniques were learned from other cultures through trade. The dry environment kept the threads intact over thousands of years. Many artifacts have been found in burials throughout Egypt. They mainly used faience beads (a glaze over crushed quartz or sand) and some glass beads. One of the earliest examples that archaeologists believe to be woven beads is from an Eurasian Ice Age burial site in Sungir dated to 26,000-23,000 B.C.E.Īncient Egyptian beadwork is an excellent example of early bead weaving techniques. Many of the earliest examples of beadwork may be long forgotten because some of the threads used to connect the beads have disintegrated over time. These threads varied based on materials available, but ranged from sinew to fiber threads from plants. So old!Įarly beadwork used thread to attach beads together. The earliest bead dates are debated between 300,000-100,000 B.C.E. Many of the earliest examples were found Kenya and Turkey. ![]() These objects would range from stones, seeds, shells, animal teeth etc. The oldest beads were naturally punctured objects. There are links at the bottom of this for those that wish to research more! Or just ask me!) This definitely does not include everything there is to know. (The history is quite extensive and I could approach this like a college research paper, but that might be too boring for people to read… so here is a shorter version. Here, I want to provide a brief history of beadwork. There are so many resources that discuss the history of beadwork from all over the world. As an artist and art historian, I find researching the background of my work incredibly interesting. ![]()
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