Northern Europe, Viking/Norse peoples, 8th to 11th centuries CE. A necklace made of two kinds of glass beads and made to be worn by a Viking woman. The smaller beads appear to be Norse-made copies of Islamic glass beads that were blown around gold; instead of using gold, these beads have been blown around wood, which you can see in the broken bead. Larger blue glass beads stud the necklace, some with clear designs inside of them. By 800 CE, the Vikings were trading across a huge area, from the islands of the North Atlantic (the first glass beads known from North America appear to have come from the Viking trading post at L'anse aux Meadow, Newfoundland) to northern Russia and the Islamic world; glass beadmaking was a standard in many of the regions they visited, and so they returned home and established beadmaking workshops in Scandinavia and traded them at the great trading emporia, wics like Hedeby or Birka. Beads were often worn as festoons strung between oval brooches, though sometimes also as necklaces. A wearable and beautiful piece. Size: 18" L (45.7 cm)

Provenance: Ex-Priavte LA County collection

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#117666

Age wear/slight abrasion to bead surfaces. Two of the seed beads are chipped, exposing the wood inside. Modern restringing and clasp.