Lotus bead

179MSA
Egyptian mosaic bead
Date: 1 century BC- 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, yellow glass is partialy discolored.
Height 14 mm, diameter 15 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: 15