Banded Agate, off white to dark brown shades, 44x19mm
The beads in this series are each beautiful one-of-a-kind reproductions of ancient Bactrian banded agate beads made in Afghanistan 4000-5000 years ago. The were traded through out the region to the ancient cities of Ur, Catal Huyuk, and Tepe Hissar among others.
See the History of Beads p.44 and Timeline for Afghanistan 2800-2000 BC
The surface of the boat-shaped beads, also called leech beads for reasons I don't understand, are a silky smooth and semi-matte, just like well-worn and much-loved ancient stone beads. The are nothing like most shiny new agates.
They were commissioned and sold by an Afghan friend for a brief period in the late 1990s. The artists who cut and shaped these beads around the natural beauty of the stone's banding, also adhered closely to ancient shapes.
Some of these could easily have been passed off as ancient for mega-bucks, but he was always careful to identify them as new and I'm doing the same.
I have looked, but haven't seen anything like these since.
The hole, about 1mm, runs the length of the top of the bead
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