Paper 2
Dating the Chickasaw Beads

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Database Fields: Artifacts

Database Fields: Glass Beads

Glass Bead Descriptions

Glass Bead Database

Glass Bead Sequence
A Beginning

Major Bead Types/Varieties
Glass Bead Chronology - Start/Finish

Glass Bead Sequence
Major Bead Fields

Glass Bead Sequence
Minor Bead Fields

Glass Bead Sequence
Major & Minor Glass Bead Fields

Glass Bead Chronology
An End, A Beginning

Glass Bead Chronology
Dating

Other Artifacts - Dating

Beads as Heirlooms

Bead Dating Conclusions

Other Factors
Appreciation

Paper 2 Figures

Paper 2 Tables

Paper 2 References

The Glass Bead Database

The database includes 188 features, which contained medium, large, very large or extra large glass beads. The glass bead fields were queried and sorted to determine a number of database attributes - shown on Table 2. Note that for each glass bead field there are corresponding columns in the table for the number of features, the numerical rank of feature, the percentage feature occurrence, the number of beads, the numerical rank of the number of beads and the percentage bead occurrence by number.

Table 2 Glass Bead Features/Numbers

Note that the total number of features is 188, a number which is lower than the numeric addition of the "Features" column. This demonstrates that the beads are associated in features, i.e. the bead types/varieties occur in a number of combinations within the features.

This table provides the feature and bead feature and numeric ranking. As an example, the bead type IA/IIIA XL occurred in six features (of the 188) and ranks 19th in the number of features compared to the 30 bead types/varieties. The IA/IIIA XL occurred as 37 specimens, which ranks 25th among the 30 bead categories, based on a population of 47,289 beads with at least a medium size.

On Table 2 IIA1/IVA1 bead type/variety leads the feature occurrence at 69, while making up 16.5% of the bead population. The IA/IIIA Opaque leads the bead population % at 33.6.

The largest number of beads is ranked, beginning with the highest: IA/IIIA Opaque, WID, IIA1/IVA1, WIA M, IIA/IVA Other and IIA7/IVA7. These top six ranking fields constitute 85.3% of the database bead population, which leaves the remaining 24 fields representing 15%.

For a moment let us compare the Chickasaw and Tunica collections, note that the two highest Chickasaw population beads, IA/IIIA Opaque and WID, were barely represented at Tunica, which Brain (Brain 1981 1) dated to 1760. Recall at Tunica that IVA1 dominated the bead population at 80%. In this database, the conjoined IIA1/IVA1 varieties make up but 16.5% of the population. However, remember the Chickasaw database excludes the small and very small sized beads that were included at Tunica.

This paper is less concerned about numerical bead population than how the bead types/varieties relate to each other within the features.

Table 3 provides insight into the composition of the features for each glass bead type/variety.

Table 3 Glass Bead Feature Analysis

First, Table 3 repeats the number of features from Table 2. Next on Table 3, the number of exclusive features is indicated. An exclusive feature is one that contained one bead type/variety exclusively, i.e. there is no glass bead association of the exclusive bead features. For example, WIA VL/XL occurred in 34 features; eleven of those features contained exclusively WIA VL/XL beads. Note that there are 61 exclusive bead features among the 188 glass bead features, or 32% exclusives. As the bead sequencing proceeds, these exclusive features will be examined more closely. The bead type/varieties that occurred both in a large number of features and exhibited a high percentage of exclusives are WIA VL/XL, WID and IA/IIIA Opaque, which may address their popularity among the Chickasaw.

Single bead features are also noted on Table 3. Single bead features indicate that a single specimen (also that single bead occurrence was not exclusive) of a bead type/variety was found within a feature. That feature may have included other bead types/varieties but only a single specimen of the bead type/variety was noted. The single bead occurrence may indicate that a bead was used as an heirloom. IIA7/IVA7 and IVA2 exhibited the highest number of single bead features for bead types/varieties occurring in at least 20 features.

The last column on Table 3 identifies how many of the bead types/varieties occurred as both exclusives and singles, i.e. did any of the features contain only one bead. It is interesting to note that one features had a single, exclusive bead.