Glass bead

Glass bead – cobalt blue with white ring decoration.

Excavated from an Iron Age settlement at Swallowcliffe Down in Wiltshire, this bead is decorated with a distinctive ‘eye’ pattern. Beads in Iron Age Britain were usually glass, but could also be made from other colourful materials such as amber, sandstone and jet. Glass beads were only made in a few places in Iron Age Britain. They may have been worn strung on necklaces, although most women would have only worn one or two glass beads, as earrings or in the hair, rather than around the neck. They are occasionally found in graves, showing that they were important personal objects.