Francisco Moreno* wrote back in 1890 about the Phoenicians in Patagonia. (El Museo de la Plata - Rápida ojeada sobre su fundación y desarrollo Rev. Mus. de la Plata. VI, p.50, 1890-91), below is what he said:
"Many have investigated certain colored glass [beads] found in England attributed to the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and then to the Romans, and later to the Venetian manufacturers. They have been found in North America, and the La Plata Museum has some found in our northern provinces and in this one of Buenos Aires; and personally I have gathered them in the ancient burials of Patagonia. Before my trip to Europe, I believed they were Roman brought by some of those who accompanied Pedro de Mendoza [1] and who had taken part in the wars in Italy, but an examination of the Egyptian collections at the Louvre and Lyon Museums proved to me, that they belonged to the eighteenth dynasty. However, lately it has been suggested that they are of Venetian make, imitating the ancient Phoenicians, but the matter has not yet been clarified."
[1]. Pedro de Mendoza (1487-1537) was a Spanish "Adelantado", sent by the king of Spain to establish a town on the River Plate, he founded Buenos Aires in 1536, died shortly after of syphilis, at sea, returning to Spain. He had served as an officer during Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain) during the campaigns in Italy where Charles sought to assert imperial Hapsburg power over the French, and took part in the looting of Rome in 1527. Buenos Aires was abandoned in 1541 when the remaining settlers moved up river to Asuncion, Paraguay, which had friendlier natives and more resources. In 1580, the second generation Creoles returned to the River Plate and refounded Buenos Aires.
The Egyptian glass beads reached Denmark (Source) during the Late Bronze Age (1400-1200 years BCE). The first glass beads date back to the XVIII dynasty around 1550—1290 BCE (Source), they were mostly blue, since that color was popular at that time. They were tinted with cobalt blue. See image below:
The Phoenicians traded with blue glass beads (made with Egyptian cobalt blue) across the Mediterranean region, and beyond.
However, the Patagonian beads could have a later, European origin. A 2017 paper about a burial in Aguada del Barril, Santa Cruz, Argentina, in Patagonia. It was discovered in 2015 (So it isn't any of those mentioned by Moreno). The authors suggest quite logically that the glass and stone beads found there were of Venetian origin anda are proof of trading between European sailors and the Tehuelche natives. The image below, from this paper, shows them (One, "G" is made of sandstone).
Another paper published in 2024 includes a detailed description of the glass beads found at the Chenque 1 site in Sierra Colorada, Santa Cruz. The paper also gives them a European origin. However, it mentions that Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, who visited the Strait of Magellan in 1579, and again in 1584, to settle the area and prevent the English from occupying the Strait, also saw the natives wearing beads: "beads, between green and blue... the strings that the Indians wear on their heads and necks in large skeinsare of the same wool [guanaco wool] and among them they wear strings of long blue beads, turquoise outside and with a black heart...".
Were these native beads? Phoenician? or did the Natives at the Strait get them from other voyagers that visited the region between the early 1500s (Amerigo Vespucci ⁄ Magellan) and Sarmiento in 1579?
Subjecting the glass to X-ray spectroscopy, spectrometry and other laboratory techniques can identify the provenance of its components and the makeup of the glass itself. These experimental methods have been used to identify the source of beads found in Portugal (Source) and in Sub-Saharan Africa (Source). They could clarify the source of the Patagonian beads.
* Francisco Pascasio Moreno (1852-1919). Argentine scientist. He explored Patagonia several times in the 1870s. In 1877, he was named Director of the Buenos Aires Anthropological Museum, which in 1884 became the La Plata Natural History Museum. He is usually referred to as “Perito” Moreno (Perito is Spanish for "specialist”, “expert") for his key role during the border conflict between Argentina and Chile from 1892 to 1902, in which he defused an inevitable war. He donated a vast tract of land that the Argentine government gave him as a reward for his services and formed Argentina’s first National Park in Puerto Blest, on Lake Nahuel Huapi. He served as a member of the Argentine Congress.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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