Category Archives: Research

Decoration and Colour of Iron Age Glass Beads from Britain

I recently attended the 20th Congress of the International Association for the History of Glass conference in Fribourg, Switzerland and presented a poster on my research. I have included the text and and some of the original images  (due to copyright restrictions, some images have been replaced, see below for alternatives).  Introduction Although a historyContinue reading “Decoration and Colour of Iron Age Glass Beads from Britain”

Glass Beads from a Late Iron Age Mirror Burial

It is extremely rare to find glass beads in British Iron Age burials. This is partially because there are so few burials of human remains that can be attributed to this period. It seems that the practice of burying the deceased in formal graves was not the dominant practice. Instead,     the archaeological record suggestsContinue reading “Glass Beads from a Late Iron Age Mirror Burial”

A Glass Bead from Caerau Hillfort, Cardiff, South Wales

A Glass Bead from Caerau Hillfort, Cardiff, South Wales An Iron Age glass bead was discovered in an enclosure ditch during the 2013 excavations at Caerau Hillfort. Although unique in design, it bears many similarities to the glass beads from Meare Lake Village in Somerset, which suggests an Iron Age date of 300 – 50Continue reading “A Glass Bead from Caerau Hillfort, Cardiff, South Wales”

An Exciting New Iron Age Glass Bead from London

A recently recorded glass bead from the Portable Antiquities Scheme provides valuable insight into how late prehistoric beads were used. LON-041951(Figure 1) is a large translucent blue bead with a number of opaque white spirals that sit on protrusions in the glass. These spirals alternate between single occurrences and pairs along the circumference of theContinue reading “An Exciting New Iron Age Glass Bead from London”