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Ancient faience bead

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Mali

Lenght: 15 mm

Weight: 5 gr

Diameter: 20 mm

Units: 1

BC0417-029
€30.00


A precious ancient turquoise faience bead found on the banks of the Niger River between the cities of Gao and Timbuktu. Its most probable origin is Persia or Egypt, and it would have arrived through the trans-Saharan caravan route at the time of the expansion of Islam. Between the tenth and twelfth centuries.

 

Faience is a sintered-quartz ceramic displaying surface vitrification which creates a bright lustre of various colours, with blue-green being the most common. Defined as a “material made from powdered quartz covered with a true vitreous coating, usually in a transparent blue or green isotropic glass," faience is distinct from the crystalline compound Egyptian blue. Notably, faience is considerably more porous than glass proper and can be cast in molds to create vessels or objects. Although not properly pottery, as (until late periods) it contains no clay and instead contains the major elemental components of glass (silica), faience is frequently discussed in surveys of ancient pottery, as in stylistic and art-historical terms objects made in it are closer to pottery styles than ancient Egyptian glass.

 

When referring to Islamic beads we follow bead expert Robert K. Liu’s description in Ornament Magazine: “The term Islamic Period Glass Beads is used, similarly to Roman Period Beads, to classify groups of ornaments from specific geographic areas and time periods, with recognizable characteristics including patterns and techniques. In the case of Islamic glass beads we know they originated in the Middle East and flourished mostly between the seventh and twelfth centuries. Their designs display a wide mix of techniques and styles: millefiori/mosaic (including pierced mo-saic pad beads), trailed, filigreed, combed, fused rods, segmented/blown, folded (an Islamic inno-vation, Holland and Holland 2006) and those derived from amulet shapes, like charmcase beads with loops.” Islamic glass beads travelled from their sources of production in the Middle and Near East together with the expansion of Islam to North Africa, Southern Europe (Spain), India and the Far East and they reached areas well beyond Islam’s actual limits of expansion such as Northern Europe. They also flowed into Sub-Saharan Africa, where they were valued and cherished for centuries in the Malian ancient kingdoms as a symbol of status and played an important role in the communities’ rites and ceremonies such a burials, initiation or dowries.


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