Bead

Add to album

This amber bead was found at Kildonan on Eigg in the Inner Hebrides in a man's grave. He was buried between 900 and 950 with some expensive textiles, a spear, an axe, an elaborate buckle, and other grave goods characteristic of Viking burials.

The bead is unusually large for an amber bead.

Amber was a valuable material, used for expensive jewellery by both Pictish and Scandinavian craftsmen. Most amber was probably imported from the Baltic region. Amber beads appear in Viking graves of both men and women.

Record details

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-100-043-719-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 172
• Date: Between 900 and 950
  
• Material: Amber
  
• Dimensions:
• What:
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Inverness-shire, Eigg, Chapel of St Donan
  
• Event:
• Description: Amber bead found near the Chapel of St Donan, Eigg
  
• References:
  • Grieg, Sigurd. Viking Antiquities in Scotland (=Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Part II, ed. by Haakon Shetelig). Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1940, p 68. 
• Translations:
• Related Records: