Photograph: Glass cone beaker with a pointed base, made from pale green glass. It is decorated with thin trails of glass in a spiral around the neck and in long loops down the body.
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Beaker

Date: 400s - early 500s

This is a 'cone' beaker, found in a grave in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Mitcham. Glass vessels like this were rare and expensive: its presence in the grave shows that the person buried was of high status. It was probably imported from France, Belgium or Germany and shows the new culture that the Anglo-Saxons were bringing with them from the continent. Cone beakers could have been used at feasts. Because they have no bases, drinkers had to down the contents (ale, cider, mead or wine) in one go and then rest the beakers upside down on their rims.

Accession number: A19747

Place of collection: Morden Road, Mitcham, London [Merton] [Anglo-Saxon cemetery]

Material: glass

Measurements: H 265 mm; DM 95 mm

Gallery location: Case 3

Related material

Subjects:

Anglo-Saxons
Eating & Drinking
France & Low Countries
Poverty & Wealth

Objects:



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