Web Description:
The production of Indo-Pacific beads spread to a handful of sites in Southeast Asia following their initial development in southern India. By the early part of the first century A.D., they were being made in four locations outside Arikamedu: Mantai, Sri Lanka; Oc Eo, Vietnam; Khlong Thom or Khuan Lukpad, Thailand; and Kuala Selinsing, Malaysia. At that time, trade had already been established between India and Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia was dependent upon India not only for goods but also for ideas about society and culture. Indo-Pacific beads were probably crafted in Southeast Asia by Indian glassmakers who had relocated there, rather than by indigenous beadmakers who had adopted the difficult technique by which the beads were fashioned. Production later spread to five other sites in Southeast Asia and India, and Indo-Pacific beads continued to be made and traded into the second millennium A.D. These opaque red beads were found in an archaeological site in Kuala Selinsing. Their similarity to early examples from India demonstrates how this knowledge of production was transferred through various ports and other sites within Southeast Asia.
