Colors from Hedeby
From Furnace to Flame: A Journey In Glass
Another article that I was given to read was “Colors of the Viking Age” by Matthew C. Delvaux.
This article examines a sample of 1,584 glass beads from the Viking-Age settlement, harbor, and cemetery of Hedeby, Germany. By designating Munsell colors for each bead and performing cluster analysis on the mapped colors, it is possible to discern how the Viking-Age inhabitants of Hedeby perceived and used color. This analysis suggests that glass beads were used differently in different [time periods].
The article describes the use of the Munsell Bead Color Book to categorize the bead colors. I used the Munsell Book, the article and Matthew C. Delvaux’s blog Text and Trowel, to make my own collection of beads in the same distribution.
The Distribution: Bead Distribution of 100 beads: 7% Red, 2% Yellow-Red, 21% Yellow, 6% Green-Yellow, 5% Green, 2% Blue-Green, 4% Blue, 46% Purple-Blue, 1% White, and 6% Black.
