Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand

The Wits University Origins Centre was so kind to be part of ‘Fired Up!’.

Several beautiful examples of historic glass beads found in archaeological sites within southern Africa complimented our contemporary glass works in the East Gallery of the Pretoria Art Museum.

The Garden Rollers deserve a special mention. These large bluegreen beads are the product of the first and only southern African glass bead industry in the archaeological record. The beads date to between 1030 and 1220 CE and were found at the K2 and Mapungubwe sites in the Limpopo Province.

“Craftsmen melted smaller glass beads traded from the East African coast to make new, larger ones in single-use clay moulds. These beads were traded far into the African interior.”

“With the advent of sophisticated technologies after the 1960s, there was renewed interest in glass beads as a reliable method of dating archaeological finds and tracing their origins. These beads are made from soda-alumina glass, linking them to production sites in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.”

The curatorial decision to include these exceptional historical artefacts weaves a thread from the origins of southern African glass-making to the present.

Thank you to the Wits University Origins Centre and Tammy Hodgskiss Reynard for making this collaboration possible.

You can visit the Wits University Origins Centre website here to learn more about their exciting lineup of events and research.

Wits University Origins Centre

“Garden Roller” bead and clay mould.

These large blue-green beads are the product of the first and only Southern African glass bead industry in the archaeological record. They date back between 1030 to 1220 CE and were found in the K2 and Mapungubwe sites, Limpopo Province.