The Study and Reproduction of Irish Glass Beads Excavated from the Deer Park Farms Settlement Site in County Antrim Ireland
Aibhilin inghean Ui Phaidin
April, 2018
An overview of the archeology and history of glass beads in Ireland:
Glass beads have been found at numerous excavation sites across Ireland including settlement sites, royal sites, ecclesiastical sites, and less often cemetery sites. Unlike Anglo-Saxon and Viking glass beads which were typically found in grave sites and were considered what the people may have worn for special occasions, the glass beads found in Ireland were not often found in grave sites as the Christian Irish typically did not bury with goods. The beads found in settlement sites such Deer Park Farms and royal sites such as Lagore Crannóg are thought to show more about everyday life and dress.
The Irish excavations generally did not yield large assemblages of beads. In fact, some beads were originally thought to be lost or stray and older excavation reports typically did not contain much descriptions of the beads found. Without sets of beads or large assemblages from individual excavation sites, it made researching beads in Ireland difficult as researchers did not have the benefit studying of the context in which beads were found to learn about use and significance (Mannion, 2015, 1). However, in her 2013 study, Irish Archaeologist, Dr. Margaret (Mags) Mannion noted common features of color, form, and size amongst the individual beads found in excavation sites across Ireland. She then used a modified methodology to study and compare these insular (Irish) beads by creating a standardized classification system grouping the beads into 18 different classes of color and form that are then divided into 2 main categories: plain and decorated beads. (Appendix I)
Glass beads at Deer Park Farms:
After the royal site of Lagore Crannóg, the settlement of Deer Park Farms is significant in that it yielded second largest assemblage of glass beads found at an excavation site in Ireland with total of 86 glass beads representing 12 of the 18 classes of beads considered to be native to Ireland (Appendix I). The beads most commonly found at the site were 39 globular beads, 11 annular beads, and 9 Herringbone beads. Four times as many decorated beads were from the Raised Rath period. Lynn and McDowell questioned whether it was due to an increase in availability of the beads, a change in the owners’ status and therefore ability to procure those beads, and/or a preference for those types of beads by their wearers (2011, p. 617).
The color of beads found at the site as well as other excavation sites is significant in that most of beads were blue with white beads following second. Blue is a prominent color seen in Irish beads yet researchers can only presume the meaning or social context. The word “glas” in old Irish could be used for blue, green and grey. Siewers (cited in Mannion, 2015, p. 100-101) studied early Irish literature from the 8th century and discussed the “Colors of Martyrdom” found in the Camdrai Homily: bánmartre (white martyrdom), dercmartre (red martyrdom), glasmatre (blue/green/grey martyrdom). One thought is that these Colors of Martyrdom may have influenced the color choices of bead makers. Another thought is that the blue may represent the water and sky of Ireland, green may represent grass and vegetation, and gray may represent the rocks and cliffs of Ireland (Mannion, 201, 100).
Dating and Significance of Glass Beads at Deer Park Farms:
Where beads were found within excavation sites, provides information on the dating of the beads and on the social context or significance of the beads to those who owned and wore them. Chemical analysis of beads gives information on the glass used to make the bead, but not the bead itself (Mannion, 2015, 3) Instead, radiocarbon dating of the materials in the context or location in which the bead was found indicates the age of the bead and the age in which it was used or worn. In these excavation sites radiocarbon dating was done on samples of contexts such as charcoal, burnt material, oak timbers, organic material in the layer, bedding material, and floor layers.
The majority of beads were found the later phases of the Rath period (i.e., range of radiocarbon dates of about 650-770 AD) and in the earlier phases of Ringed Rath period (i.e., range of radiocarbon dates of about 770-950). The beads were most often found in the dwelling houses (i.e., single homes or the front house of a figure-8 pair) or in layers of burnt materials from the houses destroyed by fire. Many beads were found in intact bedding material in the houses that survived. Beads were also found in the midden layers outside of the house but within the rath bank enclosure. Midden layers consisted of food waste, animal droppings, and refuge materials from the bedding and floors of the houses. Archaeologist believe that the artifacts found there may have been accidentally dropped or accidentally discarded with the refuse from the house.
The second largest concentration of beads that came from one context consisted of 11 beads that were found in the bedding of a home from the Rath with one bead found in a clay layer below the bedding, and are dated from 660-780 AD. There were 3 Class 10 Herringbone beads and 9 Class 15 Globular beads (i.e. 8 blue and 1 white). Smaller amounts of beads were also found in the bedding of three other structures. Though there was no string present archaeologists surmise that the beads may have been strung as a necklace based on their proximity to one another. Knowledge of how beads were frequently worn as necklaces in other cultures along with evidence from a few excavations of Irish grave sites of groups of beads found together near the neck of female skeletons support the thought that these beads would have been strung and worn as necklaces. Though few neck torcs have been found in other Irish excavation sites, there more evidence for beads as neck ornaments (Kerr, et al, 2015, 96).
Twenty-one metal pins were found at the site. One glass topped iron pin was found in the burnt layers of house without radiocarbon dating. Thought the structure built to replace it has a radiocarbon date of 710-950 AD. Though no picture of the pin was available archeologists describe the pin as having glass top as a “fusion of two beads” with the lower portion being “blue glass with a single white cable loosely spirally around it” and the upper portion being “blue glass with forms a cone...sloping down from the end of the pin” to the lower portion (Lynn and McDowell, 2013, p. 339). Stick pins and ringed pins were thought to be used by most people as dress fasteners (cited in Kerr, et al, 2015, p 95). Though these pins were often not as decorative as brooches, more glass topped pins have been found at other excavation sites in Ireland and are considered to have been worn for personal adornment as well as function.
These personal items such as the glass beads, necklace and pin which were found in houses or burnt remains of houses, and in bedding are considered to be used in daily life and therefore help give a picture of life in early medieval Ireland. While the pin found is considered to be both functional and decorative, the beads are thought to be pure decorative.
History and significance of the Deer Park Farms settlement site:
The excavation of the Deer Park Farms (DPF) site is significant in that it shows the continual evolution and use of a homestead in the Early Christian period for over 200 years. Due to waterlogging on sections of the site, especially in the first half the settlement’s occupation, there were a considerable amount of remains and artifacts excavated. The excavation of DPF not only yielded significant information on the history of the layout of the land and the houses of settlement site but information on what their everyday lives may have been.
Archeological evidence indicates that Deer Park Farms was a small family homestead that was occupied from the mid-7th century to the late 10th century. The history of the occupation of Deer Park Farms (Appendix II) was broken down by the archaeologists into 13 phases with each new phase indicating the construction of a new building or structure at the center of the Rath (i.e., a circular piece of land enclosed with an embankment of clay and stone) . Buildings were replaced when they were no longer stable or when they burnt down. Deer Park Farms also significant as the only site to date that has provided such extensive evidence of the progression of a settlement from a Rath into a “more prestigious Raised Rath” or flat topped, stone-revetted mound” (Lynn and McDowell 2011, 565 & 575).
Social Status of Occupants of Deer Park Farms:
Archaeologists compared the evidence of the structures (i.e. field boundaries, enclosures, and houses) and artifacts of craft activities and personal possessions with 8th Century law tract on status and social hierarchy (i.e. Críth Gablach) (Lynn and McDowell 2011, 304) which indicated that the primary occupant of the center house was likely that of mruigfer status or land man, and would have been considered to be prosperous. The size of the primary houses and back houses along with construction of a Raised Rath mound that was “well drained and well-finished” with “well-fitted boulders” (Lynn and McDowell, 2011, 622-623).
Organic material and artifacts found give evidence of a wide range of crafts related to agricultural production and the creation of equipment or products used for survival, nutrition, and even comfort (Kerr, et al, 621). Artifacts made from materials of iron, stone, bone, glass, wood, and leather were used for crafts including stock rearing, cultivation, planting/harvesting/processing, wicker weaving/basketry, cooking, woodland management, metalworking, textile production-spinning, dyeing, and tablet weaving, shoe making, carpentry/woodworking, and manufacturing of stave-built wooden vessels. Equipment and possessions such as spits and supports for a cauldron, iron cooking utensils, washing trough, tubs, candlesticks, knives, an auger, a saw, spears, an axe, a billhook, a spear, a plough, stave-built vessels, snout of pigs and a hook for hanging meat, and a share in a mill would correlate to being owned by a “land man” (Lynn and McDowell, 2011, 605).
In addition, much of the indications of status are also seen in evidence that the owner was able to be self-sufficient with raw materials and craft materials to make what they needed. He had access to woodland for quality wattle and other woods used for the structures, access to food and other natural resources, equipment to make necessary items need to meet their daily needs as well as “luxury items” such as glass beads, stave-built vessels, and good leather shoes (Lynne and McDowell, 2013, p. 65) which were not necessary for survival and all indicate that the occupant was well-off.
My Reproduction of the Glass Beads and Jewelry from Deer Park Farms:
In addition to reproducing examples of the more commonly found beads (i.e., annular, globular, and herringbone), I also reproduced some of the beads found in small quantities based on my technical abilities to recreate the beads (i.e. segment beads and lattice beads). I am learning to reproduce interlace and dark spiral beads and have included my beginning attempts in the collection. I recreated and strung the collection of beads thought to have been worn as a necklace. Lastly, based on my perception of the archaeologists’ description of the one glass topped pin, I reproduced the glass top on a pin that my husband created for me.
Modern vs. Period Glass Bead Making:
The commercially made glass rods that I used to make my reproductions are made with the same components as those used by bead makers in early medieval Ireland and other countries: silica, soda (a flux to lower the melting point of the silica) and lime (calcium as a stabilizer to harden the glass and to keep the ingredients in their cohesive form). Silica comes from sand or flint (i.e. ground siliceous rocks). The more silica, the softer the glass. Soda (flux) was made from the ash of burned aquatic plants or potash which is from the ash of woodland plants. The addition of metals create different colors (e.g., copper and cobalt- blues and greens, iron- green, manganese- purple, cuprous oxide- opaque red, antimony- white, lead and antimony- yellow) (Cummings, 2002). Both medieval and period glass makers use heat to form glass from these raw ingredients into glass which can then be put in crucibles or re-heated, shaped and manipulated into pre-shaped glass rods. Glass makers then sold or traded the glass to glass bead makers. Glass is now produced chemically and therefore is more easily accessible. Modern glass manufacturers are also able to create a greater diversity of colors of glass and glass with special reflective, reactive, and color shifting properties.
There were different methods of working the glass in period. Glass was melted in a crucible and a metal rod was placed in the molten glass to pick it up and then wind it onto the mandrel (i.e., hot trailing). A rod of glass that was heated and then wound onto the mandrel was also used. This method of winding heated glass onto the mandrel is what I used. I used commercially produced stainless steel mandrels that are not unlike the iron rod mandrels used in period. I created twisted stringers that I then used to decorate the Herringbone Beads. The single colored stringers I made were used to decorate the Lattice Beads, Dark Spiral Beads, and the glass topped pin. Bead makes in period decorated their beads in the same manner. I used a modern heat source (i.e. Hot Head Torch and Mapp Gas) to recreate the beads. Period heat sources were stone or clay structures fired with wood or charcoal with the bellows to add extra oxygen to increase the temperature of the flame.
I used pins my husband made for me using modern cold rolled steel rods that he cut and shaped into a pin. I have previously made simple glass topped pins from modern corsage pins and made ringed pins from modern wire. Though the pins I used for this project do not have enough taper, they are a closer representation to what would have been used in period than what I have used before. At the time of the Deer Park Farms settlement, pins were thought to be made from sections or rods of copper-alloy that were wrought into shape by “hammering, annealing and filing” of the metal into the “desired cross-section and shape” (Fanning, 1994).
Experimental Bead Furnace:
Mistress Elysabeth (Lissa) Underhill, Mistress Brunissende (Bruni) Dragonette, and I have created experimental versions of more period furnaces as a heat source for making beads. I have successfully made beads on our latest versions of the furnace as well as made or “pulled” stringer.
(Appendix III) We used commercially made mandrels and glass rods as our focus was studying and recreating the charcoal-fueled furnace using wood charcoal. We started with the glass rods that we use with modern fuels (i.e., 104 COE), but quickly found that softer glass (i.e., higher COE) was easier to use. In an e-mail correspondence with Corning Museum’s Research Library, Lissa learned that the COE of early period glass is unknown. Making beads on a more period furnace was a challenge. It requires a second person to work a bellows or in our case the battery operated air mattress pump we used in lieu of a bellows. We have learned that a large, double bellows would be needed to provide the air flow/pressure that we get from the air mattress pumps.
We found that we were able to make approximately 2 beads at the most or possibly one with simple decoration on one firing/heating of charcoal to the right temperature before the charcoal would burn down. Once burnt down and the heat was lost, more charcoal had to be added to the furnace and given some time to heat back up to the point where we could melt the glass rod. This was an effortful and time consuming process compared to the number of beads that could be made in one setting. Shaping and decorating beads over the furnace also proved to be challenging as we had less control over the burning of the charcoal and the heat of the flame. Using a modern torch and fuel, gives us control over the flame and amount of heat at any given time (i.e. by turning the dial on the torch higher or lower) and provides much more consistency. Beads can be made with significantly more effectively and more efficiently; when you run out of fuel you only need to replace the can of Mapp gas and second person is not needed at all.
Lessons Learned and Future Plans:
I have an ongoing project studying the glass beads and glass jewelry found across early medieval Ireland at a number of excavation sites. As my glass bead making skills improve and I learn new techniques, I will be able to recreate more of the beads found at Deer Park Farms as well as those found at other excavation sites. My goal is to have the technical skills that will enable me to create Mannion’s entire typography of Irish and imported beads (Appendix I).
This project was my first time focusing on the glass beads solely from one excavation site in Ireland, and it provided me with a much deeper understanding of not only the social meaning and significance of the glass beads found at the site, but of the people who lived there and wore those beads. The beads they owned, wore and possibly treasured are one element of who they were and how they lived. A more in depth study of the excavation site taught me not only much more about what their lives and culture may have been, but also what life in rural Early Christian Ireland may have been.
I anticipate doing more work with the experimental period furnace. In fact, Mistress Elysabeth (Lissa) Underhill and I have plans to work with Mistress Keely the Tinker and her experimental period furnaces at Pennsic. It’ll be interesting to compare the challenges that Lissa and I experienced with maintaining heat and the time it took to make the beads with Mistress Tinker’s process.
Lastly, it is my goal to acquire more period pins (i.e., materials, manufacturing and style). In period, the pins would most likely not have been made by the glass bead maker, but rather a metalsmith, especially at locations that were large enough to sustain individualized and different craftspeople. For smaller sites craftspeople may have add to overlap different skills. Therefore, it would be quite period for me to barter, trade or commission pins to decorate from the local metalsmiths.
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