Armlets
- Object Name
- Armlets
- Culture / Site
- Igbo Ukwu, excavated from Igbo Richard (burial)
- Medium
- Beads and copper wire
- Date
- 9th/10th century
- Dimensions
- Height 14.9 cm
- Credit Line
- National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abuja, Nigeria, IR.416 and IR.417. Photograph by Uche James Iroha
- Section
- The Long Reach of the Sahara/Igbo Ukwu
- Description
This blue glass armlet was excavated from a royal grave at Igbo Ukwu. Thurstan Shaw, who led excavations at the site, found that many beads from the site are distinguished by high lime and high aluminum content. The discovery of a bead workshop producing high-lime and high-aluminum beads 389 kilometers southeast at a site called Igbo Olokun, within the city of Ife, supports the hypothesis that these unique beads were made and exchanged locally. Yet, of the 165,000 stone and glass beads found at Igbo Ukwu, many are also traceable to the Mediterranean, the Levant, the Middle East, Arabia, and India. Beads at the site offer an interesting look into the polity’s connections to local and long-distance trade networks, including those crossing the Sahara.