Necklace

The necklace here was made of beads and fish scales in present day Grenada. Mainland South American cultures would have used teeth, seeds and feathers to make necklaces and other ornaments but those groups that migrated to the Antilles had to use materials they found there in the sea and on land. So we think this necklace was probably made by people in the Caribbean who lived by the sea.

As the necklace’s maker has used beads, it must date from post-Colombian period (around the 16th Century) because it was the Europeans who brought beads with them. Fish scales and seeds had been the more traditional materials used for making them before this time.