Bead carnival: chemical analyses of Merovingian beads from the cemetery of Lent-Lentseveld

Langbroek, M.B.; Ham-Meert, A. van; Bordes, S.; Hendriks, J.; Gratuze, B.; Strivay, D.; Wersch, L. van; Theuws, F.

In this article a method with which chemical groups of beads from a single Merovingian cemetery can
be distinguished is explained and tested. In short, this is accomplished by chemically analysing the complete glass bead assemblage of the 6th-century cemetery Lent-Lentseveld with both pXRF and LA-ICP-MS, and using Principal Component Analyses (PCA) to identify chemical groups per bead-type and per grave. The results are very promising: for imported bead-types from the Eastern Mediterranean and further East clear chemical groups per bead-type are recognised, and for both imported and European beads distinct groups per grave are identified. These findings suggest that in the 6th century beads were imported over long distances to Lent on several occasions, and that once strung, beads tended to remain together as a distinct set. The beads excavated in Lent were clearly not acquired or exchanged one at a time, which opens up the possibility that complete strings of beads were...Show moreIn this article a method with which chemical groups of beads from a single Merovingian cemetery can
be distinguished is explained and tested. In short, this is accomplished by chemically analysing the complete glass bead assemblage of the 6th-century cemetery Lent-Lentseveld with both pXRF and LA-ICP-MS, and using Principal Component Analyses (PCA) to identify chemical groups per bead-type and per grave. The results are very promising: for imported bead-types from the Eastern Mediterranean and further East clear chemical groups per bead-type are recognised, and for both imported and European beads distinct groups per grave are identified. These findings suggest that in the 6th century beads were imported over long distances to Lent on several occasions, and that once strung, beads tended to remain together as a distinct set. The beads excavated in Lent were clearly not acquired or exchanged one at a time, which opens up the possibility that complete strings of beads were exchanged. In future research it will be interesting to establish whether the same patterns can be recognised for bead assemblages excavated from other Merovingian cemeteries in the region.
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Bead carnival: chemical analyses of Merovingian beads from the cemetery of Lent-Lentseveld