Casgliadau Arlein

This is a very small example of an oval, globular bead. The ends are flattened, and it is possible a removal stub is evident, alternatively the fragment may also be a break from a larger bead. The surface is irregular and shows little weathering. The bead, if complete, would correspond to Crummy's (1981) 'standard beads' although it can be seen as an unusually small example.

There is the possibility that the bead is a fragment from a larger segmented bead. If originally segmented, then the bead would be classified as Guido 'small segmented beads' (Guido, 1978, p.92). Guido states that eaerlier dated examples occur from 2nd century AD contexts, but the type is more commonly recovered from late 3rd and 4th century contexts.