String of ?amber [or possibly plastic? or glass?] beads. [EC 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 1/3/2006]

Collection type: Object
Description: String of ?amber [or possibly plastic? or glass?] beads. [EC 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 1/3/2006]
Long description: String of ?amber [or possibly plastic? or glass?] beads. Twenty-eight orange-brown coloured beads threaded onto a string of red flecked and twisted ?cotton threads. The beads are roughly of the same size and proportion, and are closely strung - the string is not visible between the beads. Several of the beads show slight grazes and light impact marks. One of the beads closest to the knotted thread end has a second visible perforation near to the centre. [LKG 08/07/2009]
Geographical reference: Sudan, Republic of
Africa > Northern Africa > Sudan, Republic of; Western Sudan Western Darfur
Person: Field collector Anthony John Arkell; PRM source Anthony John Arkell
Date / Period: Date made: Before 08/1934
Date collected: August 1934
Acquisition information: Donated: 26/10/1971
Materials and processes: Material Bead, Material Amber, Material Plastic Synthetic, Material Glass, Material Cellulose Nitrate, Process Strung, Process Perforated, Process Moulded
Dimensions: Diameter: max 90 mm, Width: max 20 mm bead
Object numbers: Accession number: 1971.15.1638
Research and responses: See S. Withers, “The Arkell Bead Collection”, Newsletter of the Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford 18, September 1996, pp. 6-7, for some background in Arkell's collecting in the Sudan. This states that he did most of his collecting while based at El Fasher in Darfur, between 1932 and 1937, and that his collection was moved to Oxford 'where Arkell spent most of his leave' in 1937, from where it was eventually given to the PRM [RTS 5/1/2004].

Search terms: Trade, Bead, Currency, Ornament, Token

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