For centuries, glass money beads (udoud) have played a critical role in cultural and economic exchanges in the Palauan archipelago (western Micronesia) since their first appearance ca. AD 600–950 from East Java and mainland Southeast Asia. Later, as part of their stone money (rai) quarrying activities, visiting Yapese islanders negotiated access to quarry sites and purchased provisions using glass beads, corvée labor, and other exchange valuables. Here, we present morphological and chemical composition analysis of 38 glass beads recovered from Chelechol ra Orrak, the only quarry site where udoud have been recovered. Analysis reveals that most of the beads were manufactured in Europe, with many originating in Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic) ca. AD 1830–1850. Many of these beads would have been regarded as cheldoech, a category of udoud that largely went out of circulation in the 1920s due to the ease of counterfeiting. Although this category of udoud could be easily counterfeited and beads from Yap lacked the requisite life histories associated with traditional udoud, Palauans accepted them as authentic. However, our research suggests that cheldoech may have depreciated in value well before the 1920s, with Palauans valuing and exchanging this category of udoud in new ways, including interment with burials.

几个世纪以来，玻璃钱珠（udoud）自其首次出现以来在帕劳群岛（密克罗尼西亚西部）的文化和经济交流中发挥了关键作用。公元 600-950 年，来自东爪哇和东南亚大陆。后来，作为他们的石钱 ( rai ) 采石活动的一部分，来访的亚普斯岛民通过谈判进入采石场并使用玻璃珠、徭役劳工和其他交换贵重物品购买粮食。在这里，我们展示了从 Chelechol ra Orrak 回收的 38 颗玻璃珠的形态和化学成分分析，这是唯一的 udoud 采石场。已恢复。分析表明，大多数珠子是在欧洲制造的，其中许多原产于波希米亚（今捷克共和国）约。公元 1830-1850 年。这些珠子中有许多会被视为cheldoech，这是一种udoud，由于易于伪造，在 1920 年代已基本停止流通。虽然这类udoud很容易被伪造，而且 Yap 的珠子缺乏与传统udoud相关的必要生活史，但帕劳人认为它们是真实的。然而，我们的研究表明，在 1920 年代之前， cheldoech的价值可能已经贬值，帕劳人重视和交换这类udoud以新的方式，包括埋葬。