The secret of Papanaidupet

Abstract

A recent article [1] contains a number of minor errors and one major misunderstanding. The issues here go far beyond a small glass bead industry in Southeast India (now facing competition from machines at Benaras or Varanasi). The industry to which Papanaidupet is heir began some 2300 years ago in Arikamedu (Southeast India) and later operated at least in Mantai (Sri Lanka); Oc-eo (Vietnam); Klong Thom, Sating Pra, and Takua Pa (Thailand); Kuala Selinsing and Sungai Mas (Malaysia); and likely elsewhere as well [2]. Its product, the "Indo-Pacific" bead, is found in archaeological sites from South Africa to South Korea for 2000 years. It was the most important trade bead of all times, and perhaps the most ubiquitous trade item - certainly of glass - in the ancient world.