ROMAN ORIENT AND FAR EAST — SELIGMAN 559 



of a corpse, which with glass cross-pieces of swords are known from 

 the graves of those who — as we may infer — could not afford jade. 



These beads, containing a high percentage of barium, together 

 with a number of glass plaques, constitute a group of objects of 

 Han or late Chou date, both beads and plaques being sometimes 

 inlaid in bronze or silver. They all have in common the interesting 

 feature that the glass body is inlaid with a number of small white 

 rings, producing eyelets, with a white outline and colored center. 

 Often, but by no means invariably, the white inlay is crescentic rather 

 than circular, producing in the "eyelets" a peculiar revolving effect. 

 In the majority of the beads the eyelets are collected into small 

 groups surrounded by an inlaid circle of white glass, which gives an 

 extremely handsome appearance against the generally dark blue or 

 greenish blue of the glass constituting the body of the bead. These 



Figure 4.— Bead (}) and plaque (c. f) of barium glass of Han or pre-Han period. 



beads are of high specific gravity, and spectrographic analysis of a 

 number of beads and one plaque, all conforming more or less rigidly 

 to the type described, showed that they all contained barium. 



Other pieces of glass, also of supposed Han date, do not contain 

 barium, indicating the existence of more than one center of glass- 

 making in northern China in early times. 29 



Let us now consider the origin of the pattern on these beautiful 

 beads of barium-containing glass. The resemblance of many of the 

 Lo-yang beads to certain beads of diverse and sometimes unknown 

 origin in the Beck collection, as well as to some of definitely known 

 European provenance in various museums, immediately suggests that 

 the prototypes of the ornament of the Lo-yang beads are to be found 

 in the West; and since, where their provenance is known, the majority 

 of the European beads that I suppose to be the prototypes of the 

 Chinese are recognized by archeologists as belonging to the Late Iron 

 Age (though a few may date to the end of the Early Iron Age), we 

 have a date for their spread eastward which accords singularly well 



» Prof. C. O. Cullls, whom I consulted with regard to the presence of barium ores in China, writes that 

 he knows of no record of "straight" barium deposits in China, but that there are lead-zinc deposits and mines 

 In plenty and that it is from such that he would expect the barium in the glass to be derived. Actually 

 barium and lead are associated in a number of beads, etc., examined by Dr. Ritchie. 



