Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/52569

KEYWORDS : Ainus;chemical analyses;glass beads;lead glass;soda-lime glass

Many glass beads have been found at archaeological sites in Hokkaido Prefecture. Two possibilities are pointed out in Japanese and Russian documents regarding the distribution of the glass beads. One theory is that they came from Honsh?, and another suggests that they were from the lower Amur Basin and came to Hokkaido through Sakhalin Island. Since the extent of literary research for these two possibilities are limited, we decided to take a different approach to obtaining information that would lead to finding the origin of the beads. We performed chemical analyses of glass beads discovered in Hokkaido by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). Soda-lime glass beads were discovered at the sites of Epi-Jomon to Satsumon cultures in Biratori Town. Lead glass beads were discovered at those sites for dates before 1667, and soda-lime glass beads were discovered for dates after 1667 at the same sites.