Old Pueblo
Bronze Member
Found these glass beads on an old ranch here in Southern AZ, that dates back to the mid to late 1800s or so. Anyway, there is this garbage dump, one main area, and then a fairly large area of ground around it where you can see little bits of purple glass shards and white pottery and tins and stuff like that here and there. There is also some Native American stuff mixed in, including these beads. The red pottery sherds you see in the last photo are common finds at any old place around here, and may be from the old O'odham pottery trade from the late 1800s into the early 1900s a bit. The O'odham still traded for pottery and beads into the early 1900s around here, but I also found the scraper you see nearby, so that makes me think this garbage dump may have been established on top of an old Indian village site or something, and that the red pottery sherds could be from the villagers, and not from the pottery trade. Red pottery has been made like that for hundreds of years out here, and the way I tell the difference between older stuff and the more modern c.1900 stuff from the pottery trade is by where I find it. This dump is along a wash, coming out of the mountains, and thats where you find a lot of the old Indian sites, along the water or where there used to be water. But its also the site of a ranch, so theres a chance it could be from the more recent pottery trade too.
Hopefully I havent bored any of you too much with all that. Anyway, Ive never found any potential trade beads quite like these, so Id be interested in hearing anybody elses thoughts.
These are some photos of some other NA trade beads for comparison, and I think I have a match on the blue one.
Venetian Fur Trade Beads from the 1700s
Trade beads from Texas, said to be "surface finds" like mine
A bunch of other trade beads. The green one looks like it could be one of the ones at the top right.
Cobalt Blue trade beads from Oregon, which are very obviously ground down around the ends like my blue one. Im not sure, but I think these are more beads from Venice.
Trade beads from Alabama.
What do you guys think? Trade beads?
Hopefully I havent bored any of you too much with all that. Anyway, Ive never found any potential trade beads quite like these, so Id be interested in hearing anybody elses thoughts.
These are some photos of some other NA trade beads for comparison, and I think I have a match on the blue one.
Venetian Fur Trade Beads from the 1700s
Trade beads from Texas, said to be "surface finds" like mine
A bunch of other trade beads. The green one looks like it could be one of the ones at the top right.
Cobalt Blue trade beads from Oregon, which are very obviously ground down around the ends like my blue one. Im not sure, but I think these are more beads from Venice.
Trade beads from Alabama.
What do you guys think? Trade beads?
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