Towards an understanding of the carnelian bead trade from Western India to sub-Saharan Africa: the application of UV-LA-ICP-MS to carnelian from ... from: Journal of Archaeological Science]

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Description:
A trade in carnelian from Gujarat, especially the town of Khambhat, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa is often discussed in the literature. To date, such assertions have been based upon putative visual parallels between African and Indian samples, and upon historical sources. This paper outlines the results of UV-LA-ICP-MS analysis and subsequent principal component analysis undertaken in an attempt to differentiate Gujarati and West African carnelian samples, and thus begins to allow inferences to be made regarding a possible trade in carnelian between these two regions primarily in the medieval period, based upon more objective data.