Trade beads

Archaeologists documented in 2022 that beads manufactured in Europe continued to accompany exploration of Africa using Indigenous routes into the interior as recently as the late nineteenth century.

[5] It was reported in February 2022 that Venetian glass trade beads had been found at three prehistoric Eskimo sites in Alaska, including Punyik Point.

Uninhabited today, and located a mile from the Continental Divide in the Brooks Range, the area was on ancient trade routes from the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean.

From their creation in Venice, Italy, researchers believe the likely route these artifacts traveled was across Europe, then Eurasia and finally over the Bering Strait, making this discovery "the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the western hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent."

The ease of production of these beads using methods employed by European artisans enabled exploitation via a speculative attack on this West African monetary system.

[2] Africans often used beads for currency[10] and wealth storage, and social status could be easily determined by the quality, quantity and style of jewellery worn.