Melon Beads

Collected by Antiquarians Richard Bell and Reverend Anderson, this collection of Melon Beads from across the region includes examples from Beattock, Kirkpatrick-Juxta; Penpont; and Castle O'er, Eskdalemuir. These exampes are fairly typical from a period when men and women wore bracelets, amulets and rings made from coloured glass. Garments were usually made from woven lengths of cloth, perhaps fastened with bone or bronze pins and ornamented with brooches.    Jewellery in the Iron age   Bangles could have been worn around the wrists, but in some parts of northern Europe they were worn as anklets. They could be made out of bronze, but could also be carved out of soft stone such as shale or jet. Rings were also very uncommon, and might be worn on a finger or a toe.   Brooches were often very simple and little more than safety pins for holding clothes together. Glass beads were only made in a few places in Iron Age Britain. Most women would have only worn one or two glass beads, if any at all. These were often not worn around the neck, but as earrings or in the hair.