Documenting Glass Bead Assemblages from Trans-Saharan Trade Contexts in Kano State

Glass beads are among the most informative portable artefacts for reconstructing long-distance exchange networks in West African archaeology, with distinct compositional and morphological types traceable to manufacturing centres in the Islamic world, Europe, and South and Southeast Asia. This study documents glass bead assemblages associated with trans-Saharan trade contexts at two sites in Kano State, using typological classification and descriptive analysis to situate the finds within established bead chronologies. Materials were drawn from curated collections held at the Gidan Makama Museum in Kano and supplemented by a small surface-collected sample from a market mound locality in Kano Emirate. The study classifies beads by shape, size, colour, manufacturing technique, and surface decoration, resulting in a typological inventory of one hundred and twenty-three individual pieces spanning at least five distinct trade bead categories. Comparative reference to published assemblages from Igbo-Ukwu, Gao, and Tegdaoust illuminates the chronological range of the Kano collection, with some categories consistent with eleventh to thirteenth-century Islamic glass production and others pointing to later European drawn bead imports. The documentation exercise highlights the urgency of systematic collection management at Kano State museums, where storage conditions and cataloguing practices require significant improvement. The study recommends future elemental analysis of selected beads using portable X-ray fluorescence to confirm compositional sourcing. Keywords: glass beads, trans-Saharan trade, Kano State, exchange networks, museum collections.