Description

Summary: 2 glass beads fused together (maybe from heat) from Hanover, Germany found by Pastor J.C. Zimmerman in the 1750s, and purchased by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare for a reference collection.

Research results

This bead was examined by Foulds (2014) as part of their PhD with the University of Durham, examining Iron Age glass beads. The author notes that although known, glass beads attracted very little attention from antiquarians, and the first major study was carried out by Margaret Guido (who later became joint president of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society) and published in the 1970s. Foulds’ study focused on three main regions: Yorkshire, the South West of England and East Anglia. They found that glass beads were very uncommon, only present at 4.5% of the over 1,300 sides examined. They found that in the South West a variety of bead forms were present, including with a potential regional tendency towards spiral designs. They also note that beads appear to have been in use in the region throughout the Iron Age, with an example from an Early Iron Age context from the midden at East Chisenbury known, although it has since been lost.

Two fused globular glass beads from Hanover, Germany, bought by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare from collector Reverend J. Zimmerman in 1750. The bead most closely resembles glass beads of the British Iron Age, and is likely to be of the same date.