Shell beads

[Hal Gorges]

I would like to know from you all how Indians drilled thousands of 1/8 inch beads ......i can see how larger ones can be drilled........chew on this for awhile.....fl boy.

[Ron Kelley]

The smallest beads are European glass trade beads. I've never seen a drilled stone bead that small. I've never seen drilled shell beads that small. Some strands were made of shell that had a natural hole in it and they can be very small.

[south fork]

I have a few stone beads that are smaller than 1/8th

[Ron Kelley]

Did you mean to say the hole is 1/8 inch rather than the bead is 1/8 inch?

[gregszybala]

Lots and lots of time.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Harold, I do have some very small Bird Bone beads.

[tomclark]

Pinellas Co., FL They mainly used Microliths to drill shell beads and bone. [ATTACH]n427385[/ATTACH]

[Kentucky point]

I've often thought of this myself. I guess it gave them something to do when the weather was disagreeable.

[SGT.Digger]

Micro drill attached to wood and rubbed between hand probably . Not sure on the mohs scale where flint would fall but that stuff is a lot harder then Shell and bone

[CMD]

My wife strung several hundred quahog disc beads years ago. These were found at a site on Cape Cod. The beads themselves vary in thickness....





By the Contact Era, the tribes had adopted metal tools, which must have made it far easier to drill tiny holes....

[Cecilia]

Great Book! Love books. Thank you!

[Havenhunter]

Nice strand, Charlie. This looks like the strands I saw at Jamestown. Saw one strand of tiny bay scallop shells, each with a tiny hole hole drilled thru the “hinge” of each.

[Hal Gorges]

Nice white string

[Cmcramer]

Pinellas Co., FL They mainly used Microliths to drill shell beads and bone. [ATTACH]n427385[/ATTACH]

Tomclark - looking again at my tiny beads I believe are bone......likely bird bone.....reading this thread again.....Do you think maybe bird bones, already hollow, did not need to be drilled? Just an idea...

[Ron Kelley]

I'm not Tom but yes bird bones are hollow and need not be drilled.

[tomclark]

Yep for sure bird bone was an easy bead material in that it didn't require drilling, maybe some reaming..

[south fork]

These are soapstone from the north west

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Dennis, Very nice beads. What is the diameter of the beads?

[tomclark]

Killer, SF!

[south fork]

The smallest is 3/32 - 2.38 mm - 7/64 - 2.78 mm the largest on the strands pictured about 11/64 - 4.37 mm hard to be exact with out taking them apart there might be a couple smaller it took hours to string lol .

[paohrocks]

Don't find many beads in my area, very informative, appreciate you all sharing.

[Hal Gorges]

Bird bone beads, centimeter scale

[south fork]

Nice finds need to be close to the ground to find those .

[Hal Gorges]

Dig, throw it in buckets, take home and screen em, you can’t find these on the surface. even then you won’t get em all.