Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T02:08:32.774Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Analytical Investigation of a Durable Second Millennium BC Glass Bead from Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

Julian Henderson
Julian Henderson*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, 6 Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3QJ, U.K.
Get access

Abstract

This paper deals with a unique glass bead of probable second millennium BC date from Wilsford, Wiltshire in southern England. The date of the bead is probably Wessex II; c. 1400 – 1200 BC. It was first recognised as being glass [1] in print in 1812, but until recently [2] has been considered as being of stone rather than glass in line with its original description. Here the bead is described together with surface SEM studies, the replication work on glass of similar composition reported and its unusual chemical composition discussed in terms of its durability and comparable Bronze Age glass compositions. This paper is partly the result of a collaborative project involving the author, Margaret Guido, Michael Cable, Justine Bayley and Leo Biek.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 123: Symposium L – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology I , 1988 , 147
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] Colt, R. Hoare Ancient Wiltshire, I, 1812.Google Scholar
[2] Guido, M., Henderson, J., Cable, M., Bayley, J., and Biek, L., Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 50, 245–254 (1984).Google Scholar
[3] Henderson, J. and Warren, S.E., Archaeometry 23, 83–94 (1981).Google Scholar
[4] Cox, G.A. and Gillies, K.J.S., Archaeometry 28, 57–68 (1986).Google Scholar
[5] Turner, W.E.S., J. Soc. Glass Technology 38, 436–44 (1956).Google Scholar
[6] Sayre, E.V. and Smith, R.W. in Archaeological Chemistry: a Symposium, ed. Levey, M. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1967).Google Scholar
[7] Smith, R.W., in Proceedings of the 6th international congress on glass: advances in glass technology, eds. Matson, F.R. and Rindone, G.E. (New York 1963), 283–90.Google Scholar
[8] Henderson, J., Archaeometry 30, 77–91 (1988); Antiquity, 236 (1988).Google Scholar
[9] Brill, R.H. in Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient Mesopotamia. (Corning Museum of Glass, New York, 1970).Google Scholar
[10] Henderson, J. and Warren, S.E. - see note [3]Google Scholar
[11] Venclova, N., J. Glass Studies 25, 11–17; C. Thorpe and R.F.R. Sykes, Post-medieval Archaeology 1, 72 (1967).Google Scholar