RARE EARLY WAMPUM! PURPLE AND WHITE 16th CENTURY EAST COAST NATIVE AMERICAAN

  

COLLECTOR'S DREAM: ORIGINAL EARLY WAMPUM Ca. Thirty-one of the finest type wampum beads. Those who know what they are looking at will immediately realize why.

They could be listed for a lot more. These are the pre-Contact purple and white Wampum--not the later drum or barrel-shaped Wampum. Fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell made with European metal drills. Pre Contact 16th century indigenous eastern Coast tribal Women traditionally made wampum beads by rounding small.

He white and purple beads made from the quahog, or North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. Then piercing them with a hole. With quartz drill bits and. Weights were used to drill the shells. The unfinished beads would be strung together and. Rolled on a grinding stone with water and sand until they were smooth. The beads would be strung or woven on deer hide thongs, sinew, milkweed bast, or basswood fibers.

And ultimately the obsolescence of wampum as currency. The slang phrases "clams" and "shelling out" come from wampum.

The term wampum is a shortening of wampumpeag, which is derived from the. Word meaning white strings of shell beads. Measurements: Longest bead: 1 inch.

Length of all beads together about 21 inches.