Report: Keeping a beady eye out!

In the past few days at Ravenglass we've done very well for beads. We only had one last year, which was eventually identified as being made of jet.  But now we have a couple of more (at this rate we'll have enough for an actual necklace).

First there was Hayden's - he was hacking away, and some how managed to see this tiny glass bead, which is only about 2mm wide.  It's difficult to photograph, even with a macro lens, so apologies for the quality:

Tiny glass bead

And then there was another very recently, found by John. This time, the material is uncertain. It could be glass, but on comparison with the bead from last season, it's very likely to be jet.  Elsewhere in Roman Britain, there are plenty of glass melon beads so perhaps this bead is imitating them? Again, it's fairly small, this time being about 10mm wide.

Probable jet bead

Today (12 September) on site it's Open Day, so we've got lots of visitor attractions, including finds from last season, information about vicus, site tours, and even 'have a go' digging in Trench 4 with Jon Kenny, Community Archaeologist from York Archaeological Trust.  It's all happening again tomorrow, so if you've missed today, pop along tomorrow and see the site and finds.

The gazebos on site