Vitreous beads from the Uluburun shipwreck Cover Image

Vitreous beads from the Uluburun shipwreck
Vitreous beads from the Uluburun shipwreck

Author(s): Rebecca Ingram
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Uluburun; glass; faience; beads; Late Bronze Age

Summary/Abstract: The Late Bronze Age shipwreck at Uluburun (late 14th century BC) was discovered off the southwest coast of Turkey in 1982. Thousands of beads of vitreous material were found at the site, including approximately 75,000 faience beads and 9,500 glass beads. This paper offers an introduction to the faience and wound glass beads found at Uluburun, with an emphasis on manufacture and their role aboard the ship. Bead forms and styles represented at Uluburun were relatively simple and quite common at archaeological sites throughout the Late Bronze Age Levant. There is evidence that several of the simpler types of the faience and glass beads were carried on the ship as items of trade. More complex forms, in contrast, probably represent the personal belongings of the crew or passengers aboard the ship.

  • Issue Year: 2/2014
  • Issue No: XXIII
  • Page Range: 225-245
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: English