Tracing Global Trade Routes in the 7th–10th Centuries Ce Through Islamic Glass Beads from the Bongal Site (North Sumatra - Indonesia)

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-499-0_31How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Bongal site; Islamic beads; global trade; Indian Ocean; 7th–10th centuries CE

Abstract

The Bongal site on the west coast of North Sumatra yields one of Indonesia’s richest assemblages of early Islamic glass beads, dating from the 7th to 10th centuries CE. These finds—encompassing monochrome, millefiori (mosaic), eye, folded, and foil beads—attest to Bongal’s integration into the Indian Ocean’s vibrant commercial and cultural networks. Produced in major glassmaking centers such as Fustat, Nishapur, and the Syro-Palestinian region, the beads exemplify innovations in Islamic glass technology and aesthetics. This study adopts a historical-archaeological framework to analyze approximately 2,000 specimens curated in the Museum of the History of the Qur’an of North Sumatra, combining typological, comparative, and contextual approaches. The evidence demonstrates that Bongal operated as a strategic riverine-maritime hub where local commodities—gold, camphor, benzoin—and imported goods converged, enabling early encounters between Islamic artisanship and Sumatran society. Beyond their economic role, several categories, notably eye and foil beads, conveyed symbolic meanings related to prestige, protection, and religious identity, suggesting that commerce also transmitted intangible values across regions. By situating Bongal within 7th–10th century Indian Ocean circuits linking the Mediterranean, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, this research enriches the historiography of Islamization in the Indonesian archipelago. The findings confirm that Islamic influence reached Sumatra through material and cultural exchanges long before the rise of formal Islamic polities, positioning Bongal as key evidence for reconstructing early global trade and cross-cultural interaction in maritime Southeast Asia.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Ichwan Azhari
AU  - Pidia Amelia
AU  - Lukitaningsih Lukitaningsih
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/12
TI  - Tracing Global Trade Routes in the 7th–10th Centuries Ce Through Islamic Glass Beads from the Bongal Site (North Sumatra - Indonesia)
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies (ICSSIS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 378
EP  - 392
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-499-0_31
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-499-0_31
ID  - Azhari2025
ER  -