File:Bead (FindID 80850-43356).jpg

English: A glass bead, made from four different colours of glass (blue, white, red, yellow). The bead is a cylinder with straight sides. It was made by mixing two strands of blue and white glass, and then wrapping the glass around a thin metal rod (the hole left by the rod has a diameter of 3.2mm); the glass mixture was then dragged this way and that around the rod, to mix up the patterns on the surface. Tiny blobs of yellow glass were then added fairly uniformly around the sides; onto each blob was added an even smaller one of red glass. The whole bead was then heated and rolled on a smooth surface to flatten the sides. The colours are still bright, although the surface has lost its glossy shine. A small part of the outer layer of the glass has come away near one end. This item clearly required a lot of skill and effort to produce, and would therefore form part of a costly necklace (or other decoration). The date of this piece is unknown, but it could have been produced at any time between the Iron Age and the Saxon period, with the Roman period or thereafter being more likely.