English: Blue glass bead dating from the early Roman period, i.e. AD 43-200. It is a melon type bead made from dark blue translucent glass. The perforation is circular and the outside decorated with vertical grooves. The cross-section is floral. It is in very good condition. Crummy writes: "These beads [=melon beads] are found in 1st and 2nd century contexts and seem, on the evidence from our catalogue, to have been introduced into this country at the conquest. There is some slight indication that the smaller the bead the earlier it is. Most are made from turquoise frit, which often decays to white." Crummy publishes only one example made from dark blue glass (fig.32, no. 524). (Crummy 1983, 30+32).

Justine Bayley (via email) adds that the bright blue colour means the glass is coloured (mainly) by traces of cobalt and that you also, rather more frequently, get melon beads that are made of faience rather than glass. They typically have a turquoise glazed surface (coloured by minor amounts of copper) but underneath this is a buff-coloured matrix which is silica fused together with a small amount of alkali - sort of part- made glass.

NB: The image of the bead was taken by the finder and emailed to the local FLO. The copyright remains with the finder.