There is an excellent reference "Stone, bone, antler and shell. Artifacts of
the Northwest Coast" 1996. Hilary Stewart. Douglas &McInyre
Vancouver/Toronto. University of Washington Press. 140 pp.

There is also a website of the Santa Barbara Museum of natural History that
has a discussion of the Chumash Indians of California who made shell beads
from the purple olive (Olivella)used as currency. Chumash translates to
"bead money makers". See http://www.sbnature.org/chamash/daily.htm

Cheers
Rick Harbo
Nanaimo, B.C.
[log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Kurt Auffenberg <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: Shells and Beads


>Deborah,
>Welcome.  Contact Elise LeCompte, Registrar here at the Florida Museum of
>Natural History, for info on beads excavated from various sites here in
>Florida.  Her email is:  [log in to unmask]
>
>Kurt
>
>At 10:19 AM 2/9/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>>Hello!
>>
>>First, I confess that I'm not a Conchologist!
>>
>>I found your Listserv when doing a search on shells and have been
>>lurking for about a week or so.  It's always fascinating to see how the
>>Internet can bring together groups of people with similar interests from
>>all over the world.
>>
>>I'm working a project to develop a global bead database, described at:
>>http://www.members.home.com/judvan  We are a group of bead researchers
>>(including archaeologists), small bead museums and bead collectors.
>>
>>As I'm sure you are aware, shells of all types have been used (either
>>whole or in part) for beadmaking for thousands of years.
>>
>>I will now truly reveal my ignorance:  Has any Conchologist focused
>>their study on shells used as beads or in beadmaking??  Or are there
>>references that discuss the types of shells used in this way?
>>
>>Websites that might have this type of information, would be greatly
>>appreciated.  For example, Worldwide Specimen Shells website is very
>>informative:  http://users.erols.com/worldwide/
>>
>>As this is 'off topic,' if you could respond to me privately?
>>
>>Thanking you in advance,
>>Deborah Zinn
>>
>