New research on glass beads confirms trade and contact between Southern Africa and Southeast Asia ca. AD 950-1250

Luxury goods, used in Muslim and medieval long distance trade between ca. AD 900-1250, found an important market among the Iron Age peoples of southern Africa. Indirect evidence of this trade can be seen in the form of archaeological collections of glass beads at sites throughout Africa and Southeast Asia. Texts, chronicles, glass weights, scribal notes and receipts confirm that it was already a successful industrial centre with a history of glass-making when the Fatimids gained control of Egypt. In this study the author addressed three aspects of research to investigate the trade networks associated with internal and foreign contact: (1) the manufacturing origins of the beads, (2) who brought them to southern Africa, and (3) their dispersal in the region. Glass material from Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Southeast Asia was used for comparison, and as possible source material. Scientific techniques were used to confirm these operations. The beads were described, classified, and sampled selectively for physical and chemical analysis. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) used to determine the rare earth element (REE) shows that a particular glass, used to make beads in Egypt, is the same as that used to make some of the beads found at sites in the northern and eastern Transvaal. They document the existence of a trade link with the Mediterranean via the Red Sea 1000 years ago. Until now, both the origin of this contact and the extent of indigenous responses were largely unknown. These findings cast a different light on maritime trade along the east coast of Africa a millennium ago, and on external influences which helped to launch significant political developments in southern Africa