3. The Spanish Bead Quandary

Jamestown's collection contains both common and uncommon bead varieties. Some of the beads are typical of an early 17^th-century colonial assemblage in the Middle Atlantic. Other varieties are more unusual and are uncharacteristic of early English trade goods in the New World. The Jamestown assemblage includes beads that have been associated exclusively with areas of Spanish exploration and settlement in the Southeast (Brain 1975; Deagan 1987; Mitchem and Leader 1988; Pearson 1977; Smith 1983; Smith and Good 1982).¹⁰ Had it not been known that these beads came from early Fort-Period contexts at Jamestown Island, scholars might have assumed that their presence suggested Spanish occupation in the Chesapeake. The similarities between certain Jamestown bead types and those characteristically associated with early Spanish trade--particularly turquoise and navy blue nueva cadiz-like beads, melon-shaped yellow beads, and the faceted quartz crystal beads--raise the following questions:
-What is the relationship between these varieties found at Jamestown and analogous bead types found on sites associated with 16^th-century Spanish colonization efforts?
-Could these beads have been acquired from the same manufacturing source by Spain and later by England?

Venice, Italy, dominated the glass industry of 16^th-century Europe with its finely crafted decorative wares and beads (Francis 1988; Kidd 1979). By the 17^th-century, however, other European countries were also manufacturing glass beads. Nations like the Netherlands and France produced beads of a similar quality but most often in much smaller quantities (Francis 1988; Karklins 1974; Kidd 1979; Turgeon 2000). Although circumstantial evidence exists for glass bead making in Spain, it is likely that most beads found on middle 16^th-century sites and later in Spanish America were manufactured in Venice (Deagan 1987:158-159; Smith and Good 1982:12-15). Scholars continue to debate where early 16^th-century nueva-cadiz varieties were manufactured (Ibid.). Glass factories in the Netherlands known to manufacture beads that rivaled Venetian merchandise operated from 1597 to ca. 1697 (Karklins 1974). The late starting production date for the Dutch suggested that nueva cadiz beads found in association with 16^th-century Spanish trade were not made in the Netherlands. Although Karklins's (1974) extensive study of the Dutch bead industry identified several nueva cadiz-like beads from early 17^th-century contexts in Holland, few similarities existed between Dutch varieties and those found on Spanish sites (Smith and Good 1982:14-15). Dutch nueva cadiz-like beads differed from those in the Jamestown assemblage as well.¹¹ Significant differences also existed between other bead varieties both produced in the Netherlands and found at Jamestown.¹² Overall, Venice is the most likely source of manufacture for many of the glass beads found at Jamestown.¹³

If most of the glass beads intended for trade in the Americas on mid-to-late 16^th-century, and possibly earlier, Spanish and early 17^th-century English colonial sites were produced in Venice, then it appears that there is a notable reduction in the size of the beads manufactured over time. Sixteenth-century Spanish nueva cadiz and faceted seven-layer chevrons are generally much larger in both length and diameter than those found at Jamestown. They are also more diverse in color and often contain more layers of glass. Perhaps in an attempt to maximize profit, the Venetian glass bead industry began to produce similar varieties in smaller sizes and simpler forms to sell at an equal or greater price. The Venetian bead trend toward simplicity continued through the 1600s as simpler one-layer beads tend to dominate colonial site bead assemblages from the first and second quarter of the 17th century.¹⁴