Description

Summary: 1 blue and white eye bead from the early Iron Age settlement (early La Tene period) at Swallowcliffe Down, Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire. Excavated by Dr R C C Clay, 1925.

Research results

An early Iron Age polychrome glass bead, excavated from a pit in the settlement site at Swallowcliffe Down, Wiltshire, by Dr R C C Clay, 1925. Although known from the early Early Bronze Age, such as that from the barrow Wilsford G42, glass beads are rare in the early Iron Age. This is one of the only polychrome glass beads known from an Early Iron Age context in Britain.

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.