Malian Strand of Beads

Mostly sea blue, with a few beads of deep cobalt and one or two in green, all of them a little frosted.

This strand of beads comes from Mali, West Africa, and dates to the early 1st century, in excavated glass, about 2000 years old. Glass beads recovered from the ground in Mali are usually taken to be trade goods, carried long distances before they were worn and buried. The beads here are small, flattened discs, mostly in dusty blue. A run of darker cobalt beads sits near the clasp, and a few in bright green and pale stripes are spaced along the length. The surfaces have the dull bloom that long burial gives to glass. It is 14 inches long.

Old glass with the patience of a stone.