Museum Explorer
Dress and ornament in the Americas
Glass and shell necklace
From: California (Costanoan)
Date: 19th century AD
The large rectangles on this beautiful necklace are made of a kind of shell called abalone. They have been cut to shape with a special stone saw, and the edges smoothed off. If you look at the larger image, you can see that above the shell are two rows of tiny white glass beads.
The necklace would have been worn by an important native north American on special occasions.
