Elemental analysis of glass beads from Southeast Asia in the Corning Museum of Glass

Abstract The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, houses thousands of glass beads acquired in the early 1970s from Alastair Lamb. These materials represent Lamb's research at Kuala Selinsing, Pengkalan Bujang, and Johor Lama (all in Malaysia), and Takua Pa (Thailand), spanning almost two millennia of interactions across the Bay of Bengal interaction sphere. Laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometric (LA‐ICP‐MS) analysis of a subset of material attributed to these sites provides significant comparative data that elucidates the patterns of glass production within the region alongside imported materials from the Middle East and China over the longue durée .