Wampum Wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of American Indians. It includes the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and the white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. It was used by the northeastern Indian tribes as a form of gift exchange, and the colonists adopted it as currency in trading with them. Eventually, the colonists developed more efficient methods of producing wampum, which caused inflation and ultimately its obsolescence as currency. Wampum was often kept on strings like Chinese cash. Before European
Prehistoric beads in the Philippines cargo. Sarkar discusses Wheatley's eleven main trade routes: "The three Pagodas between Moulmein and Tavoy, and the three Cedis route; the Tenasserim River route in Burma; the Kra Isthmus route; the Takuapa River route in Thailand; the Trang River rout in Thailand; the Kedah-Patani route; the Perak-Petani route; the Kelantan-Malacca route by way of the Panarikan in Malaysia; the Pahang-Malacca route by way of the Panarikan; the Sembrong route; and the Bernam-Pahang route." Ille site can be found in El Nido in Palawan along with other cave complexes. According to Szabó , characteristics of the shell beads that were found