Indian, Persian or Caucasian? The cornelian beads with etched decoration of group Beck C and the long-distant eastern contacts of the province of Arabia

Abstract

Cornelian beads with etched white decoration occur in around a dozen settlements of Late Antiquity in the southern Levant. They deserve special attention, as they count as foreign forms and point to long-distant contacts. The special technique had already been mastered in north-western India and  Pakistan by the 3rd millennium BC, but cannot be continuously tracked through the ages. There is much to be said for the fact that the known beads of the post-Christian period in the Middle and Near East were no longer pro-
duced in India, but in the Sassanid Empire. Following a formative phase during the 3rd to 4th/5th century the cornelian beads with etched decoration experienced a final heyday in the 6th to 8th century. Via traderoutes, warfare or diplomatic contacts they in some cases reached very isolated regions, such as the Kama in central Russia or the southern Arabian Peninsula. The concentration in the Near East, especially in the province of Arabia, indicates that the Byzantine areas close to the border were served with such beads in small numbers. However, with a few exceptions, they did not reach further into the Byzantine Empire, the Medi terranean or the north-western barbaricum.