2300 YEAR OLD ANCIENT ANTIQUE ROMAN BEAD-4227

The ancient Romans developed glass and faience bead technology, but, as with us, valued natural gem stones highly, due to their rarity and the labor involved in working them. That work was often done by slaves who spent hours polishing a single bead. For auction is a matched pair of natural stone, (carnelian) Roman beads dating to about 300-100 BC. They were selected for matching grain, polished to the same size and complimented each other in a jewelry work, probably a necklace. They are 12.9 and 20.8 mm, just under 1/4 inch in diameter. They would make a wonderful addition to any modern jewelry creation or antiquities collection bs57