Anglo-Saxon Beads: Redefining The “Traffic Lights”

Abstract

Many thousands of glass beads have been excavated from Early British cemeteries of the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Amongst these beads is a type that was particularly common: decorated polychrome beads in red, yellow, and green glass in a variety of styles and combinations. Birte Brugmann, in her 2004 analysis of Saxon-period glass beads (Brugmann, 2004), named these beads “Traffic Light” (TL) beads because of the colours and drew attention to the fact that they were probably made in England as they do not appear on the continent.

Keywords

• bead
• jewellery
• glass
• early middle ages
• united kingdom