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Anglo Saxon glass beaker, Dry Drayton

Contributed by Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Anglo Saxon glass beaker © University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology

Found intact by the driver of a bulldozer during roadworks at Dry Drayton in 1977.In 1977 there were major roadworks on the A604 (now the A14) in Cambridgeshire. In June of that year, the driver of a bulldozer found this glass beaker and amazingly, for such a fragile and ancient object, it was intact. It was made and used by the Anglo Saxons in the 7th century as a drinking beaker: pale blue glass decorated with trails of darker blue and yellow glass which form a lattice pattern. The rounded base means that it could not have stood on a table so it was held in the hand until the drink was finished. Its shape echoes that of drinking horns and cups from around the world and the feasting scenes of the poem Beowulf.

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