Glass and other inlays
Small pieces of glass – red, white, yellow-green, blue and colourless – are used to decorate some hoard objects, and in some cases glass has been used to repair missing garnets.
Analysis shows that the glass is soda-lime-silica glass, with some other minerals added, like cobalt to make blue colouring. Anglo-Saxon glassmakers were reworking supplies of Roman or imported glass and adding to it to make new glass. The Romans were capable of making very stable glass which was still sought after in the Anglo-Saxon period.
One object contains an amber repair to replace lost garnets, and one is decorated with a clear rock crystal gem. A single creamy-coloured stone bead fits one of the scabbard buttons. Fourteen objects contain a mysterious inlay in their cloisonné cells, which, despite intensive scientific analysis, is so decayed that it cannot confidently be identified.