Small mostly 4mm Indo-Pacific beads in a mix of blues, green, white, and grey, with moderate patina, which may conceal more blue or aqua glass underneath
30-inch strands, found near Djenne in Mali
The Indo-Pacific family of beads originated in Arikamedu in Southern India around 400 BC and quickly spread in all directions. Over the next few hundred years, they reached all over Southeast-Asia, throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and all the way to Scandinavia in Europe, becoming the "greatest little trade bead of all time" according to bead researcher Pete Francis.
They come in other colors, often aqua and blue, and these days are mostly coming to the US from the Sahara under a bevy of inaccurate names and burdened with fictitious stories that are far less interesting than the truth.
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