Critical feedback sent to Bob Hudson (2)

Dear Bob Hudson and Elizabeth Howard Moore, Re: Carnelian beads in Burma and modern Yunnan. As I have made reservation for argument. Modern Yunnan received these through Burma and the source of Carnelian beads is India. Quote { Apart from the Indic beads arriving at Southeast Asian sites through maritime conduits, there is all likelihood that beads and other material from the Gangetic zone may have been moved through land routes in the Indian northeast into Myanmar and thence to Southeast Asia. Glass- and metal-based goods excavated from Iron Age graves in central Myanmar by a French archaeological mission indicate operation of exchange networks with the Gangetic Valley as early as the mid-first millennium bc (Dussubieux and Pryce 2016, 598–614). Etched white and black agate beads, similar to BDTP finds, have been excavated in 8th–5th centuries bc burial contexts near Mandalay in northern Myanmar (Glover and Bellina 2001, 205–206). These etched bead consignments, of likely Indic provenance, could have been moved further into southern China or taken south along the Irrawaddy River and through the Three Pagodas Pass into central Thailand (Figure 5, also Figure 7). The Iron Age site of BDTP, where Indic stone beads have been found in 4th-century bc contexts, lies not far from the Three Pagodas Pass. Carnelian barrel-shaped, tubular, and etched carnelian beads similar to Indian types have been recovered from the famous burial sites of Shizaishan (Yunnan, southern China) dating to the late centuries bc (Figures 7 and 8). I have discussed elsewhere the existence of a “Cowrie Trail,” a combination of sea and land routes connecting the Malabar–Maldives maritime area to the Bengal coast and thence onward to the Brahmaputra/Assam Valley, through the Indian northeast into Myanmar and southern China (Figures 9 and 10; Gupta 2006, 90–107). Historically, the indication of such a route comes from the passages of the Periplus Maris Erythraei (henceforth PME), the Greek sea guide of the first century ad, which informs of large quantities of malabathrum acquired from the tribes of “Thinae” (a place somewhere in the vicinity of the Indian northeast) and brought down to the Gangetic harbors on the Bay of Bengal and then shipped out to the Malabar coast for sale to western merchants. Archaeologically, the Cowrie Trail is indicated by the discovery of hundreds of Indian Ocean cowrie shells, together with Pacific Ocean cowries, in the famous decorated bronze containers at Shizaishan (Yunnan, southern China) dating to the late centuries bc (Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens 1990, 45–52). Interestingly, the best Indian Ocean cowries are found in sea beds off the Maldives Islands, in proximity of the great harbor of Muziris on the Malabar coast, from where the export of malabathrum was second only to pepper according to the PME (PME 63–65; Casson 1989). Imitation cowries of clay (dated to 1st century bc) have been found at the Han Period site on Jinsuo Island in the Er Hai Lake of western Yunnan, close to the border with Myanmar and in proximity of northeast India (Figure 11; Gupta 2006, 101–103). Apart from cowries, Indo-Pacific beads were sent deep into the Indian northeast through this trail. This is evident from the hundreds of Indo-Pacific beads (circular and tubular) excavated at the Early Historic site of Sekta in the Manipur Valley in the Indian northeast (Sharma 1994, 72–74). Sekta, which flourished between 200 bc and 600 ad, is located at a crucial crossroads of the traditional land routes penetrating into Myanmar and southern China (Sharma 1994; Gupta 2006, 90–107; Figure 9). The Indo-Pacific beads at Sekta are exactly the same as those produced at Arikamedu. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935413.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935413-e-46 } Unquote Thanks and best regards. adam khan