Glass bead with knobs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Uncertain color, with opaque yellow and white, and translucent blue. Cylindrical, with flat edge at one end; large hole running vertically through bead, with copper alloy suspension wire inside. Eight vertical rows of knobs, each comprising four knobs, alternating in yellow and white topped with blue. Weathered chip at uneven end, and some knobs damaged; enamel-like creamy weathering and faint iridescence.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art