Anglo-Saxons 3: beads

These are beads made into a necklace, found in a woman’s grave at Dover Hill Anglo-Saxon cemetery.

Most of these beads are made from clay. They were decorated on the surface with yellow and white swirls before being fired the kiln.

Anglo-Saxon women and girls were often buried with necklaces or bracelets made from colourful beads.

Jewellery was important. It showed how wealthy and fashionable you were. When you died, your most treasured pieces were often buried with you.

Did you know?

Anglo-Saxon beads were also made from coloured glass, carved stone and amber (fossilised tree resin) which was traded to England from the Baltic Sea.

The orange-brown beads on this bracelet are made from amber.

The yellow and white ones are made from fired-clay.

This bracelet includes several green and brown glass beads, as well as ones made of fired clay, carved stone and amber.

The round, light-blue bead (at the top) with grooved lines running across it is called a melon bead, because it looks a bit like a water melon.