Bill Billeck asked me to pass along the following about these beads: "The earliest dated site I know of is Fort Atkinson in Nebraska, 1820-1826."

Bill worked up the fort's bead collection and says that the overall report on Fort Atkinson is currently in production.  

Laurie 

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karlis Karklins
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2011 12:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "Russian" faceted beads in the southeastern U.S.

The so-called "Russian" beads (aka tubular, cornerless
hexagonal/heptagonal/octagonal) are very distinctive and widely distributed
being widely found in North America with concentrations in the Northwest,
Great Lakes, and Florida. They were also popular in Central America
(Guatemala) and Africa. I cannot recall their presence in the Middle East
or Asia. Would like to hear about their presence there if anyone has any
information. There are thick-walled and thin-walled examples.

The beads were manufactured in Bohemia but when exactly they began to be
made is still uncertain. I believe the earliest date postulated for them
was ca. 1775 in the Great Lakes region by George Quimby though he later
admitted that was probably too early. When analyzing the beads recovered
from St. Eustatius by Norm Barka, I performed a survey of the literature
and found relevant data for this type from 36 sites. This revealed the
following. The site date range was 1680-1910 with a core date of 1805-1860
(the optimal period of bead utilization based on the relative frequency of
sites producing this type over time) and a mode of 1830. This was published
in BEADS 1 back in 1989. There certainly has to be more evidence now to
refine the core dates and it would be great if someone would undertake a
study of them like the one Bill Billeck did for the distinctive
red-on-white or cornaline d'Aleppo beads published in BEADS 20.

Bob Hoover's comment that native peoples had bead preferences is very true.
While the indigenous peoples may have initially been wowed by all the new
and exciting items presented to them by early explorers and traders, beads
included, and took whatever they were offered, they quickly became adept at
specifying exactly what they wanted and negotiating better deals.There
are a number of recorded instances where eager traders who had brought
sacks of beads popular last season hoping to make a killing were
chagrined to find that the same people were no longer interested in them
and wanted new styles, sizes and colors.

Karlis