bead
- Museum number
- 1880.3694.i
- Description
-
Small spherical bead; apparently a solid ball with a tiny piercing and a bronze metallic sheen, probably once gilded.
- Production date
- 2ndC (found with coins of Wima Takto (c. AD 90-113))
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 4.20 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- For documentation and a discussion of IM.Metal.94-103, see 1880.3694.a-b.
E. Errington: 28 beads of this type are scattered throughout the relic deposits, in one instance clearly associated with finds from Bimaran Stupa 2 (1880.3851.d). Although the beads initially appear identifiable as some of Masson's '52 gilt or gold beads' from Hadda Stupa 10 (MSS Eur. E161/VII, f.8), they are all found mixed with small ivory, bone and pearl beads primarily associated with the finds from Passani Stupa 'tumulus' 2 and Bimaran Stupas 2 and 4 (Uncat. MSS Bundle 1b, ff.1-2, Wilson 1841, pp. 71, 75). This example retains a gilded appearance and can perhaps be identified with the 'one or two globular gold beads' from Passani Stupa 'tumulus' 2 (Uncat. MSS, Bundle 1b, f.1). A small gold bead was also found in the Kotpur Stupa 2 deposit (see 1880.3694.h) and a larger 'golden' one (judging by its size in Masson's sketch) in Hadda Stupa 4 (Uncat. MSS Bundle 1b, ff. 1, 3), both with late 1st-2nd-century coins. It also seems possible - from the smoky, slightly iridescent appearance of the beads - that they could be identifiable as Masson's 'burnt pearls &c.' recorded from the Darunta sites, although Masson's cursory 'burnt' coral and pearl beads from these sites are more accurately listed by Jacquet as 'calcined' pearls and 'dull whitish' beads ('calcined coral?') in his account of Honigberger's finds from Bimaran Stupa 3 which, like Passani 'tumulus' 2, contained Soter Megas coins (Jacquet 1838, pp.176-7). Jacquet also illustrates a pierced 'gold globule' from the same site (Jacquet 1836, pl.XII.19), which is identical to the Masson examples. For similar beads, see 1880.3851.d, 1880.3885.f, 1880.3908.h, 1880.3929.e, 1880.4102.f, 1880.4105.a, 1880.4116.o.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1880
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1880.3694.i
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: IM.Metal.94-103 (British Museum no.: India Museum collection)