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=== History of Glass Beads ===

Glass beads have been found dating from pre-historic times with finds in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia and are some of the oldest known works of art.

Here is an interesting article on the [http://www.geocities.com/ladysveva/BeadHistory.html History of the glass bead by Lady Sveva Lucciola]

=== Modern Glass Beads ===

In the middle Ages Venice became the glass making capital of the western world. Marco Polo is attributed with bringing the first glass beads home from Asia. The secrets of glass manufacture found their way to Venice from Syria. In 1292, the glass factories were relocated to the island of Murano both to reduce risk of fire to the city, and to protect the secrets glass manufacture.

See Wikipedia entry on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano_beads Murano glass beads]