Description

Summary: 1 blue glass bead, small find no 191, from the prehistoric settlement called 'Black Patch' at Blacknall Field, Pewsey, Wiltshire, excavated by Ken Annable and the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1969-1976.

Research results

An iron age monochrome glass bead, found during excavations of the Prehistoric settlement at 'Black Patch', Blacknall Field, Pewsey, by Ken Annable and the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1969-1976.

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.