In the Upper Great Lakes region of North America, Indigenous people crushed and re-melted glass trade beads to produce new adornment forms during the late 17th and 18th centuries. Laser Ablation � Inductively Coupled Plasma � Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was used to assess the chemical composition of re-melted glass pendants and re-melted fragments from four archaeological sites, as well as glass beads from these and other sites in the region, in order to investigate pendant production and trade. The data reflect both glass recipes used in Old World glass manufacturing processes and Indigenous raw material choices for re-melted glass pendant production.  Glass of similar chemical composition recovered from different places may demonstrate trading relationships among archaeological sites.  Chemical matches between beads and pendants from the same archaeological site may indicate that people were producing pendants on-site using available beads as raw material, rather than receiving beads and pendants from separate trade sources.

Laser ablation: Inductively coupled plasma, mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis of re-melted glass pendants from the North American upper Great Lakes

245th National Meeting (2013)

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