Amber beads from a necklace

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These amber beads from a necklace are part of a hoard of jewellery and other items buried in a pot sometime between 950 and 750 BC, and ploughed up at Balmashanner in Angus. The amber derives from coasts around the Baltic.

Thirty-one amber beads of various sizes were found in the hoard. The necklace would have been a high status object, since only the wealthy had access to amber at this period.

The Balmashanner hoard demonstrates how extensive and complex were the contacts between Scotland and the outside world during the early first millennium BC. The contents came from Ireland, northern Europe, north-west Europe and the eastern Alps.

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• Online ID: 000-100-034-580-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.DQ 162 to X.DQ 192
• Date: Between 950 and 750 BC
  
• Material: Amber
  Bead
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Bead
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Angus, Balmashanner
  
• Event:
• Description: Amber beads from Balmashanner
  
• References:
  • Coles, John M. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 93 (1959-1960), pp 16-134, esp. pp 98-9. Scottish late Bronze Age metalwork: typology, distributions and chronology. 
• Translations:
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