This book presents a comprehensive corpus of beads and pendants found during excavations undertaken by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago between 1960 and 1968 at the Lower Nubian sites of Qustul, Adindan, Serra East, Dorginarti, Ballana and Kalabsha and stored in the Oriental Institute Museum.

This vast, illustrated catalogue organises the finds first chronologically according to the main periods of Nubian history and then by cultural units, beginning with the A-Group and ending with modern times. The present volume—the first of two—comprises beads from Early Nubian (A-Group, Post-A-Group), Middle Nubian (C-Group, Pan Grave, Kerma, Middle Kingdom), and New Kingdom sites. The discussion of each cultural unit begins with background information and develops into a fascinating story of the most characteristic types that form part of that group's identity, though types and materials often cross chronological and regional borders. The story is also one of jewellery fashions and the wealth and long-distance contacts of Lower Nubia, which lay at the crossroads of ancient routes in this part of the world.

More specialized information on bead types, ordered by the materials from which the beads were made, is given in the second section of each cultural category. An outline of the preserved beadwork and an anthropological analysis of the remains of the beads' owners, together with references to parallels known from relevant literature and museum research, are also provided. The book concludes with illustrated synoptic and concordance tables that allow the reader to switch easily between catalogue, Oriental Institute Museum, and Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition find numbers.