By investigating the materiality of colonial encounters, specifically the consumption of introduced commodities by Indigenous peoples, archaeologists can explore questions concerning value, agency, consumer choice and localization. This has the significant capacity to broaden understandings of intercultural encounters and challenge colonial narratives. Glass beads represent one of the earliest foreign material culture introductions to the Indigenous peoples of Australia. The rock-shelter site of Madjedbebe, best known for yielding the oldest evidence to date for human occupation in Australia, also contains one of the largest assemblages from an Indigenous site context in Australia—51 glass beads and associated fragments. We present here an analysis of these objects—through attribute and microwear analysis—in concert with the archival record, to reveal the ways in which Bininj (Aboriginal people) incorporated glass beads into their own lifeways.

通过调查殖民遭遇的重要性，特别是原住民对引进商品的消费，考古学家可以探索有关价值、代理、消费者选择和本地化的问题。这具有扩大对跨文化接触的理解和挑战殖民叙事的巨大能力。玻璃珠代表了澳大利亚原住民最早引入的外来物质文化之一。马吉德贝贝 (Madjedbebe) 岩石庇护所遗址以提供迄今为止澳大利亚人类居住的最古老证据而闻名，还包含澳大利亚原住民遗址环境中最大的组合之一——51 颗玻璃珠和相关碎片。我们在这里通过属性和微磨损分析对这些物品进行分析，并与档案记录相结合，以揭示Bininj（原住民）将玻璃珠融入他们自己的生活方式的方式。