There have been many examples in sagas - both Icelandic and Norse, telling of the transactional nature of the culture in Old Norse/Viking times between Kings and their subjects.

Kennings are metaphoric phrases used in place of nouns - the phrase "Ring-giver" was frequently used in place of the word "King".

In one of the earliest published documents, Beowulf, we are introduced to Scyld who was known as "þæt wæs gód cyning -- A Good King" and his son Beow who are referred to as "léofne þéoden, béaga bryttan (beloved prince, ring giver).

Beowulf receives largess for his service which probably included arm rings and finger rings.

This year, I've been learning all the things in regards to melting glass, and, I got somewhat bored with glass beads.  I wanted to try my hand with other interesting glass-based things, just to see how far I could push the envelope.  Rings are something that were challenging, but also documentable in various cultures.  I have based these glass finger rings on several extant examples from the museum in Jorvik, as well as a piece found in Visby, Sweden.

Frequently, archaeologists will find metal wire-worked finger rings, and also plenty of beads and epic amounts of glass shards.  Intact glass finger rings are not as commonly found, and I think the reason for this is that they are more fragile and less structurally sound than a glass bead (Bigger hole has less solid stuff in it to support itself as compared to a bead which has a smaller hole).  Broke your ring?  Let's re-melt it into something else!

I am placing this into the "Science" category, as while the art is beautiful and lovely, the creation of it was a hypothesis, test, failure and if the failure was bad enough, painful.  (Drop it on your foot and it hurts, it must be science!)  ETA: Actually, this is functional arts.. but am still leaving "Science" in there, because a lot of scientific procedures went into the creation of these rings.