PA2789 Glass Beads

48PA2789 was the first locality where glass beads were discovered after a major wildland fire had burned off much of the surface vegetation. The locality had been fully documented before the fire (all artifacts visible on the ground surface mapped and recorded) and a total of 319 chipped stone artifacts were observed. After the fire (see Todd 2015), the the site was revisited and the beads, as well as metal artifacts recorded (total 1st post-fire number of artifacts recorded = 1747). Given the lack of red-heart beads, use of this locality is mostly likely pre-1840 (Billeck 2008).

Four clusters of glass beads – **48PA2789** is the northern most in this group

Site 48PA2789 was recorded before a 2006 fire and no beads or Contact Period artifacts recorded. Immediately after the fire, beads were visible among the newly exposed surface artifacts. Fourteen years after the fire, when the site surface vegetation had mostly returned, the number of artifacts observed had decreased due in part to revegetation, but also to some artifact theft.

Bead Photos

References Cited

Billeck, W.T. (2008). Red-on-White drawn or Cornelian Beads: A 19th-Century Temporal Marker for the Plains. Beads 20:49-61.

Todd, L.C. (2015). A Record of Overwhelming Complexity: High Elevation Archaeology in Northwestern Wyoming. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 43 60(236):67-86.