Associate

The scholars and collaborators extending ISAC’s research community.

About

Joanna Then-Obłuska is an Associate Professor at the University of Warsaw and an Associate of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) at the University of Chicago. She specializes in the archaeology of Northeast Africa. Primarily focusing on societal and trade issues, her projects examine ancient beads and jewellery in terms of both material and bead-making techniques. She uses archaeometric results to understand the economic role of bead imports during a period of intensive Indian Ocean trade.

ISAC Publications

Select Publications

Books

  • Then-Obłuska, J. (2022). Beads from Excavations at Qustul, Adindan, Serra East, Dorginarti, Ballana, and Kalabsha Part 1: A-Group, Post-A-Group, C-Group, Pan Grave, Kerma, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom [=The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition Volume XI], Chicago: University of Chicago Press 
  • Then-Obłuska, J., Wagner, B. (2019). Glass bead trade in Northeast Africa. The evidence from Meroitic and post-Meroitic Nubia, PAM Monograph Series 10, Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press, ISBN/ISSN: 9788323539070, DOI: 10.31338/uw.9788323539070 
  • Then-Obłuska, J., Zieliński, Ł, Czyżewska-Zalewska, E. (2021). Early Makuria Research Project. El-Zuma Cemetery III. Small finds. [=Harvard Egyptological Studies, Volume: 13]. Leiden: BRILL 

Articles

  • Then-Obłuska, J. (2021). Typology of Glass Beads: Techniques, Shapes, Colours and Dimensions, In Kanungo A.K., Dussubieux L. (eds) Ancient Glass of South Asia: Archaeology, Ethnography and Global Connections. Springer, Singapore, pp. 211-224. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-3656-1_8 
  • Then-Obłuska, J. (2021). Indian Glass Beads in Northeast Africa Between the First and Sixth Centuries CE. In: Kanungo A.K., Dussubieux L. (eds) Ancient Glass of South Asia: Archaeology, Ethnography and Global Connections. Springer, Singapore, pp. 533-537. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-3656-1_22 
  • Then-Obłuska, J., Dussubieux, L. (2016). Glass bead trade in the Early Roman and Mamluk Quseir ports – a view from the Oriental Institute Museum assemblage, Archaeological Research in Asia 6, 81-103. DOI: 10.1016/j.ara.2016.02.008 
  • Then-Obłuska, J., Dussubieux, L. (2021). Beads for the nomads of Late Antiquity. Chemical characterization of glass from the Blemmyan tumuli at Kalabsha, Nubia, of the mid-fourth century CE, Archaeometry 63(6), 1255-1271, DOI: 10.1111/arcm.12680 
  • Then-Obłuska, J., Dussubieux, L. (2023). Teardrops at the Lake: Chemistry of New Kingdom to Makuria Glass Beads and Pendants Between the First and Second Nile Cataracts. African Archaeological Review 40, 295–315, DOI: 10.1007/s10437-021-09467-1 
  • Gilg, H.A., Then-Obłuska, J., Dussubieux, L. 2024. Four millennia of garnet trade in Northeast Africa – chemical analysis of ancient and late Antiquity beads from Lower Nubian sites, Archaeometry, DOI: 10.1111/arcm.12964

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