Shiny and strange: the introduction of glass in Dutch Later Prehistory

Dutch ornament traditions in the Neolithic period focused on strung beads of amber, jet, stone and bone (e.g. Piena & Drenth 2001; Van Gijn 2006; Verschoof 2011; DeVriendt 2013, 118-121). These materials remained in use for ornaments during the Bronze Age (2000-800 BCE) in the Netherlands, as is clear from finds of amber (Butler 1990, 48-68), jet (Van der Wal & Vermeulen 2021, 64-65) and bone ornaments (e.g. Glasbergen 1954, 103; Verwers 1966, 29; Lanting et al. 2000, 82) in funerary contexts. In the course of the Bronze Age, settlement finds indicate that the selection of raw materials used for ornaments is expanded with for example beads of copper, tin and lead (e.g. Butler & Hielkema 2002, 541-544: Van der Sanden & van Os 2021, 46), albeit that ornaments in both bone (e.g. Van Dijk et al. 2002, 593-595) and amber (e.g. Vons 1970; Kleijne 2015, 67) continued to be crafted as well.
In addition to new metals being incorporated into ornament traditions, other new materials are introduced as well. Amongst these, segmented beads of faience already get added to the repertoire around the 17th century BCE (cf. Van Heeringen 1978; Haverman & Sheridan 2006; Bulten & Boonstra 2013), presumably as part of the North Sea maritory exchange network (cf. Sheridan & Shortland 2004, esp. 369-270; Needham 2009). Presumably several centuries later, glass gets added as well. While glass (pyro)technology - used for ornaments - is extant in the Near East since final 3rd millennium BCE (e.g. Willvonseder 1937, 91; Nicholson & Henderson 2000; Shortland 2009; Henderson 2013, 3), it is produced in a regular and controlled manner in Egypt from the 16th century onwards (Shortland 2007, 261) with historic sources for both production (cf. Oppenheim et al. 1970) and consumption (in elite networks; Moran 1992, 235; 293; 347; 351-352; 355).
It is interesting to query at which point in time glass ornaments were introduced to north-west Europe Bronze Age communities. Rare Early Bronze Age associations may be the green glass bead reported by Piggott (1939, 193) found with three bronze daggers and a cremation in the Kerguevarec Breton tumulus. A well-furnished Aunjetitz grave at Wachberg (Melk, Austria) yielded a blue glass bead (Beninger 1935, 144; Willvonseder 1937, 91). By the 15th-14th century BCE, glass finds are known from different parts of Germany (Varberg et al. 2015, 174), as shown by the 15th century blue glass and amber beads from Schwarza (Ebner 2001, 99) and the 13th century Neustrelitz hoard (comprising 20 amber and 180 blue glass beads; Mildner et al. 2010, 44-45). As Varberg (et al. 2015, 175) could list at least seven examples of Per. II (1500-1300 BCE) blue glass beads from Danish funerary contexts, it is reasonable to assume that Dutch Bronze Age communities could have access to glass ornaments by the second half of the Dutch Middle Bronze Age (1500-1100 BCE).
In what follows, we will contextualize glass ornaments from Dutch later prehistory (2000-12 BCE; Bronze Age up to Late Iron Age) in the light of these wider European trends, with special attention to the chronology, the (functional) ways in which glass used in ornament traditions, the state and context of their deposition and (shifts in) composition and glass technology. In this, we decidedly not strive to present or discuss complete corpora, but rather provide and discuss a representative sample of glass ornaments that allows discussion of the aforementioned topics. First, a period-by-period overview is offered of representative glass ornaments for the temporal scope proposed, after which an integrated and diachronic synthesis of their composition is presented.