They are not bigger than blueberries but create quite a stir in the scientific community. Small blue pearls, discovered in Alaska, have been talked about a lot since the American archaeologists Michael Kunz and Robin Mills put forward the idea that they would have arrived in America from Europe… Before the discovery of the New World by Christophe Columbus. The two archaeologists, who have worked for decades at Inuit sites in Arctic Alaska, put forward in the American Antiquity journal in January the hypothesis that these objects traveled more than 17,000 km from Venice, Italy, to arrive to the Brooks Mountain Range, Alaska, before 1492.
"Even in your wildest dreams, you don't expect something like this!"
», Is still surprised Michael Kunz, archaeologist at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, who contributed to the discovery of these pearls with Robin Mills, of the Bureau of Land Management, in Fairbanks in Alaska.
"This shows that these little blue beads, made in Venice, could travel all the way across the Asian continent, to the Bering Strait and to Alaska," continues Mike Kunz, who has worked at sites in Alaska for more than 50 years. years.
“And that's probably one of the best examples we've ever seen of how trading can just work.
"
A first excavation in the 1950s
The first time that small blue glass spheres were discovered in Alaska was at Punyik Point in the early 1950s by archaeologist William Irving and his team. “They found between 6 and 8 pearls,” explains Mike Kunz. But at the time, carbon-14 dating techniques, "still in its infancy," explains the archaeologist, did not make it possible to determine the age of the pearls found.
It was not until the early 2000s, when Mike Kunz, Robin Mills and other archaeologists were sent to this site "to see the damage caused by natural erosion" that other pearls were unearthed.
Archaeologists scan the area for metal: "We found spoons, knives and forks from the original archeology team that they used to eat their dinners!"
laughs Mike Kunz.
But we also found artefacts, ”explains the archaeologist.
The researchers end up unearthing two copper bracelets, two iron pendants and three small beads, piled up next to each other.
Pearls dated between 1443 and 1488
This time, the archaeologists are able to date the pearls precisely, using carbon 14 dating. To do this, they will use a small vegetable string found with the pearls and the results will surprise the team: " So we have this string wrapped around this bracelet that we could radiocarbon date. When we dated the string, the date went back between 1443 and 1488. Before Columbus made his initial journey! We were blown away! Kunz continues.
During the following years, the archaeologists continue their research and find other pearls, until arriving at ten.
After having analyzed with carbon 14 charcoal and caribou bones also found near pearls, the results are clear: the dates of these different elements coincide and were made for the majority before 1492. “We have three sites. where we found these blue pearls, and the dates all overlap at some point in the 1400s. You know, I think we have one pretty solid thing, ”Kunz defends.
From Venice to Alaska by caravan
It remains for archaeologists to identify the provenance of these pearls. According to their research, at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, only one entity could produce this type of glass beads: the Republic of Venice. “The general rule is that any pearl that is made in the 15th century had to come from Venice. And since our results indicate that these pearls are from the 15th century, we said to ourselves, “Okay, these pearls must be Venetian! », Explains Mike Kunz.
This is where the two archaeologists establish their theory: to get from Venice to Alaska before 1492, these pearls had to take the land route, probably via the Silk Road. “Some of these pearls had to get on a commercial caravan from Venice. These caravans traveled in all kinds of territories and met the people who had lived there for thousands of years. And the caravanners were ready to trade what they could. If locals could trade fur for cute little pearls, they did, ”says Mike Kunz. According to the archaeologist and his colleague Robin Mills, these pearls must therefore have traveled from Asia to the Russian Far East before arriving at the Bering Strait."And the Inuit of the Bering Strait must have brought these pearls to Alaska", concludes the archaeologist.
A dating that raises questions
Since the publication of their article, archaeologists have received advice from colleagues who question their theory. In an article published in the journal "Society Bead Researchers", Elliot Blair, Assistant Professor Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama, the variety of pearls found in Alaska - called IIa40 - could not be manufactured. only from the 1560s. One of the two main techniques used in the making of this type of pearl - the technique of "stretching", that is to say of stretching the glass into a long tube before cutting segments of it - dates back to 1470. “But the method which makes it possible to round the pearl by heat (the second characteristic of pearl IIa40, Editor's note) is mainly a technique of the 17th century, or the end 16th century, ”says Elliot Blair.
For Mike Kunz, the hypothesis is that the pearls found in Alaska would in fact come from a period of "development" of these two techniques. “Glassmakers don't wake up one fine day and say, 'Hey, I know how to make glass beads! There must have been a time for development, ”argues the archaeologist. Regardless of the exact age of these pearls - before 1492 or even during the 17th century, "this story is fascinating," says Elliot Blair. “Because it's still 100 years before the first documented contacts with Alaska”. Because it was not until 1,741 that the Danish Vitus Bering “discovered” Alaska.