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Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean

Early Makuria Research Project. Beads and pendants from the tumulus cemetery in Nubian Tanqasi, Sudan

2018, 27, No. 1

Joanna Then-Obłuska

0000-0002-4690-0069

University of Warsaw, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0013.2006

Publication date

21.12.2018

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Humanities

Discipline

archeology

Language of publication

English

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Article

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Abstract

An assemblage of 1687 beads and pendants was recovered from the excavation of five tumuli (16, 23, 46, 52, 179) in the cemetery of Tanqasi in Sudan. The assemblage is dominated by faience beads (n=920). The remaining beads and pendants are made of glass (n=422), stone (n=241), ostrich eggshell (n=102), and metal-in-glass (n=2). Morphological estimation based on material, technique of manufacture and shape provides a preliminary overview of types that are encountered at Tanqasi cemetery. In addition to beads made of locally available materials (ostrich eggshell, quartz and faience), glass beads of Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific provenance were found. In general, the assemblage is dated to the period between the late Meroitic and post-Meroitic. A few bead types: small faience, bichrome glass and gold-in-glass, are late Meroitic in date. One stone bead may be Napatan in origin.

Keywords:

beads,pendants,ostrich eggshell,stone pendants,Meroitic beads,Indo-Pacific glass beads,Nubia,Sudan

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