Viking Glass / Stone Beaded Necklace, 3 Strands

Northern Europe, Viking, ca. 800 to 1000 CE. An incredible necklace made from approximately twenty Viking beads of glass and green quartz. The beads are a delightful variety of shapes and colors. Others include white, purple, and deep ochre quartz, blue glass with iridescent and pearlescent patinas. They are strung in three strands on a modern oxidized silver chain with an S-clasp. This piece will absolutely spark conversation!

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 bead making workshops in Scandinavia and traded them at the great trading emporia/wics like Hedeby and Birka. Beads were often worn as festoons strung between oval brooches, though sometimes also as necklaces.

Condition: Small chips and nicks to bead surfaces commensurate with wear. The glass beads have attractive iridescent/pearlescent patinas.