Artifact - Blog Posts
In the 1970s, excavations at the Newton Slave Burial Ground uncovered the grave of a man believed to be a healer or spiritual figure. He was buried with powerful objects: metal jewelry, an iron knife, and a short-stemmed clay pipe likely made in Ghana.
Among his burial items was a necklace made from a mix of beads, some with fascinating origins.
One glass bead, made with European powder glass, was probably crafted in Ghana.
Another, a cylindrical carnelian bead, came from Cambay, India ; a region known for carnelian bead production since the first millennium. These beads were traded through East Africa, across the Sahara, and into West Africa.
Other elements of the necklace could have been acquired in Barbados, but together they reflect a deep continuity of African cultural traditions in the Caribbean.
Scholar Jerome Handler used ethnographic sources from West Africa to interpret the necklace, and strongly argued that the man was likely seen as an obeah or healer by the enslaved community at Newton.
This burial is one of the most powerful archaeological cases for the survival of African spiritual identity through the horrors of the Middle Passage and slavery.
The Nebra Sky Disk is actually like an emote!
This was made by Ranier Zenz for Wikimedia
Ancient Necklace with Mosaic Glass Beads, from the Eastern Mediterranean, c.100 BCE-100 CE: this necklace is composed of 30 glass beads, most of which are decorated with stylized faces
From the John Paul Getty Museum:
The beads are made of multi-colored opaque glass and are decorated with heads and floral designs. The necklace is in good condition; some beads are chipped or cracked.
The exact origin of this piece is unknown, but it can be traced back to the Eastern Mediterranean, where it was likely made by a Greek or Roman artist.
Each bead has a width of about 1.2cm (roughly half an inch); they're decorated with remarkably intricate details, and each face is depicted in its own unique style.
Sources & More Info:
John Paul Getty Museum: Necklace with Mosaic Glass Beads
Thus far, research has narrowed the identification of the four remains to 21 or 22 individuals who “likely died during the period when the (Union-operated) hospital” was caring for the Confederate dead and dying after the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. The original list contained 59 names and their units.
