Joanna Then-Obluska is a researcher at the University of Warsaw and an associate of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, specializing in the archaeology of Northeast Africa. Since receiving her PhD from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in 2008, her interests have focused primarily on issues of society and trade, looking at ancient and medieval Egyptian, Sudanese, and Ethiopian beads and jewelry in terms of both material and beadmaking techniques. Her recent monograph on the Indian glass bead trade in Northeast Africa based on archaeometric evidence earned her habilitation from the University of Warsaw in 2020.