Britannica
Sources used in this answer
When were the earliest known Egyptian glass beads made?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
glassware
Fish of core-made glass with “combed” decoration, Egyptian, New Kingdom, 18th dynasty (c. 1363–46 bc). In the British Museum. 0.141 m × .069 m.
The earliest known Egyptian glass objects are beads that date from some time after approximately 2500 BCE.12
While ancient Egyptians utilized a near-glass glaze on stone beads as early as 4000 BCE, these were not made of independent glass material. True glass beads, representing the earliest instances of the material used independently in Egypt, appeared significantly later, around 2500 BCE.3124