Found in Alaska, These Blue Beads Could Be the Oldest Evidence of European Goods in North America

Gizmodo ^ | 02/07/2021 | George Dvorsky

[BenLurkin]

European-crafted glass beads found at three different indigenous sites in northern Alaska date back to the pre-colonial period of North America, in what is an intriguing archaeological discovery.

Somehow, these blueberry-sized beads made their way from what is now Venice, Italy, to the Brooks Range mountains of Alaska at some point during the mid-to-late 15th century, according to new research published in American Antiquity.

The authors of the paper, archaeologists Michael Kunz from the University of Alaska Museum of the North and Robin Mills from the Bureau of Land Management, suspect the beads were trade goods that, after passing through China’s Silk Road, eventually made their way through Siberia and eventually into Alaska via the Bering Strait. If confirmed, it would be “the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the Western Hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent,”...

These glass beads, with regional names like “Early Blue” and “Ichtucknee Plain” and scientifically known as the “IIa40” variety, have been found in North America before, including the Caribbean, the eastern coast of Central and North America, and the eastern Great Lakes region, but those finds date back to between 1550 and 1750.

The glass beads, of which 10 were recovered, were found at three different archaeological sites in Alaska’s Brooks Range. One of these sites, called Punyik Point, used to be a seasonal camp for inland Inuit peoples, as well as a stopping point along an ancient trade route. The other sites, Lake Kaiyak House and Kinyiksugvik, also date back to the Late Prehistoric indigenous period.

[BenLurkin]

gnip

[Salamander]

/laughs in Viking

[Lazamataz]

Glass beads.

Americanz iz ztupid.

[Oscar in Batangas]

Marco Polo’s fault!

[Adder]

from what is now Venice, Italy,

Ummm, it would have been Venice back then also.

[mewzilla]

But not Italy, IIRC. :-)

[Adder]

True enough.

[heavy metal]

it’s gets so cold there that even glass beads turn blue...

[moovova]

The Vikings needed the little blue pill?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. If you knew blue beads, like we know blue beads...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. If you knew blue beads, like we know blue beads...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

[SunkenCiv]

well, that was weird.

[MayflowerMadam]

I think I saw some of them at the Woolworth’s souvenir shop on 4th Avenue in the ‘70s. (I could be wrong.) ;)

[Red Badger]

Not surprising.

The distance across Europe to the north polar regions isn’t that far. They could have come from the Scandinavian peoples, Laps, etc in trade...............

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/redpaintpeople/index?tab=articles

[Albion Wilde]

[null and void]

well, that was weird.

Nah. SaveFerris does it all the time...

[null and void]

For when you’r just not up for rape, kill, pillage and burn...