Archaeometric study of glass beads from the 2nd century BC cemetery of Numantia

Abstract

Recent archaeologícalf ieldwork undertaken in the Celtiberian cremation necropolis of Numantia (Soria, Spain) has provided a group of glass beads from the 2nd century BC. Such glass beads were part, together with other metallic and ceramic items, of the offerings deposited with the dead. They are ring-shaped in typology and deep-blue, amber, or semitransparent white in colour. This paper reports results derived from the chemical and microstructural characterization carried out on a representative sample set of this group of beads. The main goal of the research was to find out about their production technology to explore their probable provenance. In addítion, corrosion mechanisms were also assessed to determine the influence of crematíon on the beads' structure. The resulting data suggest that these blue and amber beads were made using soda-lime silicate glass, whereas semi-transparent white ones were manufactured from alumino-silicate glass. It has also determined that some transition metal oxides were used as chromophores, as well as lead oxide for decoration.