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Lotus bead

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Ancient mosaic glass bead with lotus patternEgyptian mosaic glass bead 166MSA
Ancient mosaic glass bead with lotus patternAncient Roman mosaic glass bead with lotus pattern
Description

166MSA
Egyptian lotus bead 
Date: 1 century AD
Roman Egypt
Mosaic glass

Bead's matrix is formed by folding a complex premanufactured glass mosaic strip over a rod. Central band is composed of five cane sections of blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea), - a symbolic depiction of resurrection: the lotus sinks underwater at night and re-emerges in the morning to bloom again.

Intact, good condition, minor surface chips.
Height 14 mm, diameter 16 mm

For similar beads see:
-Véronique Arveiller-Dulong, Marie-Dominique Nenna.  Les Verres antiques du Musée du Louvre III : Parure, instruments et éléments d’incrustation, Paris, Éditions du Louvre, Somogy, 2011, p. 159: 204-10
--Alexeeva E.M. Antichniye busi severnogo prichernomoriya, Academy of Science, Moscow, 1982, table 48: 14,15