Decorated Window-Glass and Millefiori from Monkwearmouth

Abstract

SummaryRecent excavation of the monastic sites of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow has produced a quantity of plain and coloured window-glass sealed within the destruction levels of the buildings. Monkwearmouth was founded in 674, and Jarrow in 685; both sites were abandoned in the mid ninth century.In the 1969 excavations at Monkwearmouth a complete quarry of amber window-glass decorated with white trails was discovered, and this piece is discussed and compared with other glass from the sites. Two millefiori settings from Monkwearmouth are also discussed and compared with a composite rod from Jarrow and other mosaic glass settings from the British Isles.