gems, archaeology, archaeogemology, Vietnam, beads, garnet, hessonite, grossular, almandine

Enam for the first time. While things were not quite so easy for the visitor as they are in much of Southeast Asia, they will certainly get easier now that a quarter century of isolation has been broken by American recognition of its government. My visits took me to four institutions where I saw and studied beads: the Institute of Archaeology and the History Museum in Hanoi, the History Museum in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC; consisting of Saigon, Cholon and the surrounding area), and the Museum of Oc-Eo Culture in Tan An, Long An province, south of HCMC. I am especially grateful to Ian Glover, Institute of Archaeology, City College, London, who put me in touch with some of the people involved; Allison and Victor Diem of Manila, who made other recommendations; Nguyen Thi Kim Dung of the Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi; and the staff of the institutes I visited.