ANGLO-SAXON GLASS FROM THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

An Anglo-Saxon cone beaker found in the high-status 6th-7thC cemetery at Faversham, Kent. at Corning Museum of Glass.

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What is Anglo-Saxon glass? It is Frankish-Merovingian glass found in England either having been made there or imported between 5^th to 8^th centuries and also found in dated Anglo Saxon graves sites. 

The Anglo-Saxon were a group of people who came in ships across the North Sea in the 5^th C. to inhabit and rule territories that are today part of England and Wales.  These new people were a mix of tribes from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, the three largest groups were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes.

Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after their initial settlement and up until the Norman Conquest. The early Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects that survive today, including regional government of shires and hundreds. During this period, Christianity was established and there was a flowering of literature and language. Charters and law were also established. The term Anglo-Saxon is popularly used for the language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England and eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. In scholarly use, it is more commonly called Old English. (Wikipedia)

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Examples of Anglo-Saxon Glass from the early middle ages (Migration Period) 5th to 8th centuries. Distributions are below the objects.

An early Anglo-Saxon cone beaker, 5th–6th century, found at Acklam, Yorkshire, England, in 1892. Now at the Corning Museum of Glass.

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An Anglo-Saxon glass palm cup of the 6th-7th century, found in the 18th century at St Martin in the Fields, London. At The British Museum.

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A 7th-century Anglo-Saxon glass drinking horn, from Rainham, London. At The British Museum.

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Also worth noting that the glass-workers who made the claw- globular beakers in the 5th to mid-6thC — and the later Taplow & Broomfield, Essex (pictured) items — were using glass imported from the eastern Mediterranean, At The British Museum.

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Anglo-Saxon blue glass bowl, c. 600 AD, from Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire; in the Ashmolean Museum

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A 7th-century claw beaker found in Vendel grave 12 in Sweden; believed to have probably been an import made in England, arguably Kent. At The British Museum.

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Four green glass claw beakers, found in the early 7th-century Anglo-Saxon barrow burial at Taplow. At The British Museum.

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One of the wonderful early Anglo-Saxon claw-beakers from Castle Eden (Durham) & Mucking (Essex)

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A glass claw beaker found in grave 204 (c.520–540 AD) at Finglesham, Kent, now in the Ashmolean Museum

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An early Anglo-Saxon claw beaker from late 6th- to 7th-century cemetery at Wrotham, Kent. At The British Museum.

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This object was found in the region around Cambridge at a construction site. It is remarkable that it was not damage. It is now in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge UK.

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Below is an active link on this blog to The British Museum collection of Roman and Merovigian/Anglo-Saxons glass. and Museum or Archaeology and Anthropology Cambridge UK.

**THE BRITISH MUSEUM: POST ROMAN AND MEROVINGIAN GLASS 5TH – 7TH C

GLASS AT MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE UK