These beads and amulets from semi-precious stones are found at many archaeological sites on Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles (400/200 BC- AD 600). Semiprecious stones such as carnelian, turquoise, amethyst, serpentine, nephrite, and jadeitite occur naturally on certain islands of the Antilles and in parts of the mainland and were exchanged either as a raw material or as finished objects.
Catarina Guzzo Falci from Brazil investigates the traces of manufacture and use on precolonial beads in the lab in Cruce de Guayacanes, Dominican Republic. Similarities in ways of bead production can tell if different communities were connected.
Photos courtesy of NEXUS1492.