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The Cultural
Heritage

PLASHES ON GLASS BEADS…

ȍ

Ǥ Ǥ Ȏ

A grain of sand provokes a sand storm…

lass beads are the ancient and evergreen material. It has not been losing purity and colour-

fulness for many millenniums. The miniature form of a bead contains not only beauty and

universality borrowed from nature but also cultural symbolism. A glass bead is the eternity

Gembodiment, the material solidity, resembling a stone in its features, the contraposition of

the little to the whole world, an image of unicity, community, and unanimity. One bead is one person; a

string of beads is already a family, kin, and people.

Glass beads have been playing an monuments are “The Ancient Sanctuary Ust’-
important role as an element of the material Poluy” and “The Ancient Settlement Ust’-
and spiritual culture for the Yamal indigenous Vasyegan-1” where the proofs of the first glass
peoples over several millenniums. According beads application by the local population were
to A.A. Bogordaeva, the question about glass found. Under the classification of Lois Sherr
beads emergence among the Northern native Dubin [20. С. 329], the discovered glass beads
peoples is “closely linked to the research of are generally related to import made from glass,
trade and exchange relations in the Eastern semi-precious stones and bronze, brought form
Siberia’s territory; to sorts and types of used the territories of the Mediterranean, Central
glass beads and strings; to the technology Asia, and the Eastern countries.
of production and topography concerning Amidst the Middle Ages, in XI–XIII
Arefyeva Anna Alekseevna, beaded adornments; to (their) popularity (…) centuries AD, glass beads and strings of the
Chief Keeper of Yamal-Nenets in different times [2. P. 59]. Bulgar and Western European production
District Museum and Exhibition The first evidences of the glass beads and started to be introduced into the territory
Complex Named after
I.S. Shemanovskiy strings presence in the modern territory of of the Western Siberia. At that period of
(c. Salekhard, Russia) the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District time glass beads from semi-transparent
is attributed to the archeological sources, and opaque glass, amber, sard, rock crystal,
namely to the discoveries of early Iron Age (IV bronze, and silver were very popular among
century BC – V AD). These two archeological the indigenous population of the Western

30 Arctic Art & Culture • №1 (3) • 2018 Arctic Art & Culture • №1 (3) • 2018 31