African Trade Beads: Their 10,000-Year History

First made and worn 120,000 years ago, beads were originally made of natural materials — stones, shells, wood — and have been used for adornment, currency and burial offerings.

Trade beads of polished stones and shells have a history thousands of years old, but the first glass beads were made in Egypt. They were meant to be cheaper mimics of precious stones. A thriving glass bead manufacturing industry began in Murano (Venice) in 1291, and the trade spread to Holland, Bohemia and Moravia (...