Glass Bangles

This group of fragments of coloured glass bracelets is a small selection from a larger find of 418 objects. They were collected from the ground surface at Al Huwaila, northern Qatar. Al Huwaila was a coastal trading and pearl fishing settlement that would have been the main city of Qatar from the 16th to the mid-18th century, with continuous occupation until 1835 when it was abandoned.

These bracelets with striped bands around the outside are thought to be of Indian manufacture. By the early 19th century, red inlaid bangles and black bangles had completely replaced the coloured striped varieties, and most of these examples probably date from the 18th or early 19th century. Exactly the same types of bangles are found at many other 18th-century coastal sites in Qatar.