Bush Barrow

Last updated

Bush Barrow
Bush Barrow - geograph.org.uk - 1622275.jpg
Bush Barrow on Normanton Down
Wiltshire UK location map.svg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Shown within Wiltshire
Location grid reference SU11644126
Coordinates 51°10′14″N1°50′05″W / 51.17051°N 1.834819°W / 51.17051; -1.834819
Type Tumulus
Part of Normanton Down round barrow cemetery
History
Periods Bronze Age
Site notes
Excavation dates1808
Archaeologists William Cunnington
OwnershipManaged as an RSPB reserve
Public accessNo (but near a bridleway)
Official name Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
TypeCultural
Criteriai, ii, iii
Designated1986 (10th session)
Reference no. 373
Region Europe and North America
Designated1925
Reference no. 1009618

Bush Barrow is a site of the early British Bronze Age Wessex culture (c. 2000 BC), at the western end of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery in Wiltshire, England. It is among the most important sites of the Stonehenge complex, having produced some of the most spectacular grave goods in Britain. It was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare. The finds, including worked gold objects, are displayed at Wiltshire Museum in Devizes.

Contents

Description

Bush Barrow contents on display at the World of Stonehenge exhibition in the British Museum. Bush Barrow.jpg
Bush Barrow contents on display at the World of Stonehenge exhibition in the British Museum.

Bush Barrow lies around 1 kilometre southwest of Stonehenge on Normanton Down. It forms part of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. [2] The surviving earthworks have an overall diameter of 49 metres (161 ft) and comprise a large mound, with breaks in the slope suggesting three phases of development. [2] The barrow currently stands 3.3 metres high and its summit measures 10.5 metres in diameter. [2]

The barrow is one of the "associated sites" in the World Heritage Site covering Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (Cultural, ID 373, 1986). [3] The Normanton Down round barrow cemetery comprises some 40 barrows strung out along an east-west aligned ridge. Bush Barrow (so named by Cunnington because it had bushes on it) is towards the western end of the line of barrows, sited at the highest point of the ridge. [4]

Contents

Hexagon geometry was employed in both lozenge forms. Note the lozenges are not to relative scale. After Johnson 2008. Both Lozenges.jpg
Hexagon geometry was employed in both lozenge forms. Note the lozenges are not to relative scale. After Johnson 2008.

The barrow was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare. [2] It contained a male skeleton with a collection of funerary goods that make it "the richest and most significant example of a Bronze Age burial monument not only in the Normanton Group or in association with Stonehenge, but arguably in the whole of Britain". [4] The items date the burial to the early Bronze Age, circa 1900 BC, and include a large 'lozenge'-shaped sheet of gold, a sheet gold belt plate, three bronze daggers, a bronze axe, a stone macehead and bronze rivets, all held by the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes. [6]

Bush Barrow lozenge

Design, angles and alignments of the Bush Barrow lozenge Bush Barrow2.jpg
Design, angles and alignments of the Bush Barrow lozenge

The design of the artifact known as the Bush Barrow lozenge, and the smaller lozenge, has been shown to be based on a hexagon construction. Both the shape and the decorative panels appear to have been created by repeating hexagons within a series of three concentric circles, each framing the series of smaller decorative panels. [8] The precision and accuracy displayed by the work demonstrates both a sophisticated tool kit and a sound knowledge of geometric form. A similar gold lozenge from Clandon Barrow, in Dorset, used a decagon in its design. [9] [10]

The design of the Bush Barrow lozenge also suggests that it has an astronomical meaning. The acute angles of the lozenge (81°) are equal to the angle between the midsummer and midwinter solstices at the latitude of Stonehenge. [11] [12] When the sides of the Bush Barrow lozenge are aligned with the solstices, the long axis of the lozenge also points to the equinox sunrise. [11] According to David Dawson, director of the Wiltshire Museum, the design and precision of the Bush Barrow lozenge shows that its makers "understood astronomy, geometry and mathematics, 4,000 years ago." [13] [14]

According to the archaeologist Sabine Gerloff, the lozenge design indicates "a continuation of some Megalithic traditions, beliefs and cult practices into the Early Bronze Age". [15] Lozenges are also depicted on the Folkton Drums, [16] which are thought to represent measuring devices used in the construction Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments. [17] [18]

Daggers

Two of the bronze daggers have the largest blades of any from their period, whilst a third had a 30 centimetres (12 in) long wooden hilt originally decorated with up to 140,000 tiny gold studs forming a herringbone pattern. The studs are around 0.2 millimetres (0.0079 in) wide and 1 millimetre (0.039 in) in length with over a thousand studs embedded in each square centimetre. [19] [20] David Dawson has stated that: "The gold studs are remarkable evidence of the skill and craftsmanship of Bronze Age goldsmiths – quite rightly described as 'the work of the gods'". [21] Optician Ronald Rabbetts has said that "Only children and teenagers, and those adults who had become myopic naturally or due to the nature of their work as children, would have been able to create and manufacture such tiny objects." [19]

Scientific analyses indicate that the gold originated from Cornwall. [22] This was also the source of gold used to make the Nebra sky disc and Irish gold lunulae. [23] [24] The dagger may have been made in either Britain or Brittany (Armorica), where similar examples of gold-stud decoration are known. [25] Gold-stud decoration was also used on the amber pommel of a dagger from Hammeldon Down Barrow in Devon, dating from the Wessex II period. [26]

The hilt of the Bush Barrow dagger lay forgotten for over 40 years from the 1960s, having been sent to Professor Atkinson at Cardiff University, and was found by one of his successors in 2005. [21]

Antique knife

Some bronze rivets and other bronze fragments have been identified as the remains of a knife dating from about 2400 BC, suggesting that the Bush Barrow chieftain may have belonged to a "noble dynasty" dating back to the time of Stonehenge's construction. [13]

Stone mace

An unusual stone mace head lay to the right of the Bush Barrow skeleton, made out of a rare fossilized stromatoporoid (sea sponge), originating in Devon or Cornwall. It had a wooden handle, from which decorative zig-zag-shaped bone mounts survive. The mace is considered to be a symbol of power or authority. [27] Similar bone mounts have been found in Grave Circle B at Mycenae in Greece, [28] [6] at Illeta dels Banyets in Spain (associated with the Argaric culture), [29] and in gold at Carnac in Brittany (associated with the Bell Beaker culture). [30] [31]

Various authors have suggested a connection between the bone mounts in Britain and those in Greece, where they appear without local antecedents. [32] [28] [33] This is supported by the finding of amber necklaces from Britain in the elite shaft graves at Mycenae (Grave circles A and B). [34] [35] [36] According to the archaeologist Joseph Maran, "In Greece, amber objects first make their appearance in the seventeenth or sixteenth centuries BCE at the very beginning of the Mycenaean period. ... the amber objects had not reached Greece from the Baltic, but, mostly as finished products, from the area of the Wessex culture of southern England. ... There is an amazing similarity between the shaft grave period and the Wessex culture not only in the amber items as such and their close association with gold, but also in the social contexts of the appearance of amber jewellery … in both regions such special amber objects were confined to the very small group of the most richly furnished burials.” [37]

Close similarities have also been noted between the gold-stud decoration of the Bush Barrow dagger and the decoration of elite weapons in Mycenaean Greece. [38] [39] The gold-stud technique is exclusively attested in Britain, Armorica and Greece, with the oldest examples coming from Britain and Armorica. In Greece this technique, known as 'gold embroidery', first appears in the shaft graves at Mycenae. [40] According to the archaeologist Nikolas Papadimitriou, "Mycenaean gold embroidery first occurred in the same context as two other types of artefacts that are considered indicative of northern European links: amber spacer-plates with complex boring and weapons with in‐laid decoration." [38] Sabine Gerloff argues that the gold-stud technique originated in Britain and was transferred to Greece, along with amber necklaces and zig-zag and lozenge-shaped decorative elements, including the bone mounts from Mycenae. [41]

Wider context

Stonehenge World Heritage Site map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Bush Barrow
Boundary of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, with the location of Bush Barrow

It is not known why this barrow contained such rich grave goods compared to those around it. It occupies the highest point, but is not the tallest barrow, and is not obviously marked out as the principal barrow in the cemetery. Nonetheless, several other barrows within the Normanton Group contain similarly rich grave goods associated with primary interments, also of a similar age. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mycenae</span> Archaeological site in Greece

Mycenae is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about 120 kilometres south-west of Athens; 11 kilometres north of Argos; and 48 kilometres south of Corinth. The site is 19 kilometres inland from the Saronic Gulf and built upon a hill rising 900 feet above sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebra sky disc</span> Bronze artefact, c. 1600 BCE, found in Nebra, Germany

The Nebra sky disc is a bronze disc of around 30 cm (12 in) diameter and a weight of 2.2 kg (4.9 lb), having a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These symbols are interpreted generally as the Sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars. Two golden arcs along the sides are thought to mark the angle between the solstices. Another arc at the bottom with internal parallel lines is usually interpreted as a solar boat with numerous oars, though some authors have also suggested that it may represent a rainbow, the Aurora Borealis, a comet, or a sickle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mycenaean Greece</span> Late Bronze Age Greek civilization

Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were mainland Greek peoples who were likely stimulated by their contact with insular Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, and Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, and Athens in Central Greece, and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, and on Cyprus, while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant and Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wessex culture</span>

The Wessex culture is the predominant prehistoric culture of central and southern Britain during the early Bronze Age, originally defined by the British archaeologist Stuart Piggott in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Únětice culture</span> Bronze Age archaeological culture in Central Europe

The Únětice culture, Aunjetitz culture or Unetician culture is an archaeological culture at the start of the Central European Bronze Age, dated roughly to about 2300–1600 BC. The eponymous site for this culture, the village of Únětice, is located in the central Czech Republic, northwest of Prague. There are about 1,400 documented Únětice culture sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 550 sites in Poland, and, in Germany, about 500 sites and loose finds locations. The Únětice culture is also known from north-eastern Austria, and from western Ukraine.

Rillaton Barrow is a Bronze Age round barrow in Cornwall, UK. The site is on the eastern flank of Bodmin Moor in the parish of Linkinhorne about four miles (6 km) north of Liskeard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tumulus culture</span> Prehistoric European culture characterized by burial mounds

The Tumulus culture was the dominant material culture in Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age.

The Overton Period is the name given by archaeologist Colin Burgess to a division of prehistory in Britain covering the period between 2000 BC and 1650 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aegean art</span>

Aegean art is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea during the Bronze Age, that is, until the 11th century BC, before Ancient Greek art. Because is it mostly found in the territory of modern Greece, it is sometimes called Greek Bronze Age art, though it includes not just the art of the Mycenaean Greeks, but also that of the non-Greek Cycladic and Minoan cultures, which converged over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hove amber cup</span> Bronze Age cup

The Hove amber cup is a Bronze Age cup that was discovered in a great round barrow mound that was crudely excavated in 1856, in Hove, East Sussex, England, and is now in Hove Museum and Art Gallery. It was found during the construction of Palmeira Square. The barrow was of exceptional size and quality, suggesting a date in the mid-Bronze Age. The Hove amber cup is one of only two found in Britain; the other was in Dorset. However, the two are not of the same style of craftsmanship.

The European Bronze Age is characterized by bronze artifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regional Bronze Age succeeds the Neolithic and Copper Age and is followed by the Iron Age. It starts with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC and spans the entire 2nd millennium BC, lasting until c. 800 BC in central Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clandon Barrow</span> Bowl barrow in England

Clandon Barrow is a very large bowl barrow dating from the Bronze Age, which overlooks the village of Martinstown, near Dorchester in Dorset, and which lies on the same ridge as Maiden Castle, near to the Mount Pleasant henge. It was excavated by Edward Cunnington in 1882. Gold objects were found including a cup and the Clandon Lozenge. The lozenge has recently been studied along with a similar artifact from Bush Barrow. It has now been clearly demonstrated that both the form and decorative elements of these lozenges were based on geometric designs. The Clandon example was created with decagon based geometry, the Bush Barrow example was based on a hexagon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronze Age Britain</span> Period of British history from c. 2500 until c. 800 BC

Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c. 2500–2000 BC until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as the Bronze Age, it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools. Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiltshire Museum</span> Archaeology Museum, History museum in Wiltshire, England

The Wiltshire Museum, formerly known as Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Devizes Museum, is a museum, archive and library and art gallery established in 1874 in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The museum was created and is run by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, a registered charity founded in 1853.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Normanton Down Barrows</span> Barrows in England

Normanton Down is a Neolithic and Bronze Age barrow cemetery, about 0.6 miles (1 km) south of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. The burials date from between 2600 and 1600 BC and consist of a Neolithic long barrow and some 40 or more Bronze Age round barrows, along the crest of a low ridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grave Circle A, Mycenae</span> 16th-century BC royal cemetery in southern Greece

Grave Circle A is a 16th-century BC royal cemetery situated to the south of the Lion Gate, the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece. This burial complex was initially constructed outside the walls of Mycenae and ultimately enclosed in the acropolis when the fortification was extended during the 13th century BC. Grave Circle A and Grave Circle B, the latter found outside the walls of Mycenae, represents one of the significant characteristics of the early phase of the Mycenaean civilization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grave Circle B, Mycenae</span> Historic site in Mycenae

Grave Circle B in Mycenae is a 17th–16th century BCE royal cemetery situated outside the late Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae, southern Greece. This burial complex was constructed outside the fortification walls of Mycenae and together with Grave Circle A represent one of the major characteristics of the early phase of the Mycenaean civilization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folkton Drums</span> Archaeological find in England

The Folkton Drums are a very rare set of three decorated chalk objects in the shape of drums or solid cylinders dating from the Neolithic period. Found in a child's grave near the village of Folkton in northern England, they are now on loan to Stonehenge Visitor Centre from the British Museum. A similar object, the Burton Agnes drum was found 15 miles away near Burton Agnes in 2015, and another example, the Lavant drum, was excavated in 1993 in Lavant, West Sussex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gold grave goods at Grave Circles A and B</span> Gold grave goods in the Bronze Age city of Mycenae, Greece

There have been many discoveries of gold grave goods at Grave Circles A and B in the Bronze Age city of Mycenae. Gold has always been used to show status amongst the deceased when used in grave goods. While there's evidence that the practice of grave goods and monumentalizing graves to show status was used throughout Ancient Greece from the Bronze Age and passed through the Classical Period, the goods themselves changed over time. However, using gold as a material was a constant status marker. At the Grave Circles in Mycenae, there were several grave goods found that were made out of gold; masks, cups, swords, jewelry, and more. Because there were so many gold grave goods found at this site there's a legend of Golden Mycenae. Each family group would add ostentatious grave goods to compete with the other family groups for who is the wealthiest. There was more gold found at Grave Circle A and B than in all of Crete before the late Bronze Age.

The Armorican Tumulus culture is a Bronze Age culture, located in the western part of the Armorican peninsula of France. It is known through more than a thousand burial sites covered by a tumulus or otherwise. The culture is renowned for some exceptionally richly endowed burials of chieftains of the time, which are contemporary with the elite of the Wessex culture, in England, and the Unetice culture, in Central Europe.

References

  1. ↑ "The World of Stonehenge (2022)". British Museum.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Historic England. "Bush Barrow (943060)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  3. ↑ UNESCO website
  4. 1 2 3 Barrett, Kate; Bowden, Mark (2010). Stonehenge World Heritage Site – Landscape Project: Normanton Down: Archaeological Survey Report (PDF). Research Department Report Series. Vol. 90–2010. English Heritage. pp. 11, 32. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  5. ↑ "Photo of the Bush Barrow Lozenge".
  6. 1 2 "Wiltshire Museum Galleries: Bush Barrow". Archived from the original on 5 March 2005. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
  7. ↑ MacKie, Euan (March 2009). "The Prehistoric Solar Calendar: An Out-of-fashion Idea Revisited with New Evidence". Time and Mind. 2 (1): 9–46. doi:10.2752/175169709X374263. S2CID   162360353.
  8. ↑ Johnson, Anthony, Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma pp 182–185 (Thames & Hudson, 2008) ISBN   978-0-500-05155-9
  9. ↑ Johnson, Anthony (2008). Solving Stonehenge. Thames and Hudson. pp. 181–269. ISBN   9780500051559. The Bush Barrow lozenge shows that from the time of the construction of the first truly circular earthworks, ideas had progressed far beyond the geometry of circles to the understanding of the radii to create hexagons, the subdivision of angles, the setting out of accurate right angles and the investigation of other geometric forms including decagons and pentagons. … The sophisticated geometric design of the Bush Barrow lozenge can hardly have been a spontaneous product; the confidence of its execution proclaims it to be an evolved work based on long-established and well-practised procedures. (p.181-182) ... Both the Bush Barrow lozenges were based on hexagonal geometry. … The design of the Clandon Barrow lozenge is based on the ingenious use of a 10-sided polygon (decagon) which was then used to control the proportion and spacing of its concentric design (p.260-269)
  10. ↑ Garrow, Duncan; Wilkin, Neil (June 2022). The World of Stonehenge. British Museum Press. p. 187. ISBN   9780714123493. The similarities [of the Clandon Barrow] with Bush Barrow in terms of content are remarkable: both mounds produced gold diamond-shaped plaques, both contained similar weapons, and both held extremely rare maces made from a range of exotic materials. The location of Clandon, close to the ancient ceremonial centre of Mount Pleasant, is also comparable to the privileged position of Bush Barrow near to Stonehenge.
  11. 1 2 MacKie, Euan (March 2009). "The Prehistoric Solar Calendar: An Out-of-fashion Idea Revisited with New Evidence". Time and Mind. 2 (1): 9–46. doi:10.2752/175169709X374263. S2CID   162360353. Ker and his colleagues found the pair of acute angles of the basic diamond pattern [of the Bush Barrow lozenge] to be 81°. They realized that this was the angle between midsummer and midwinter sunrises (and sunsets of course) on a low horizon at the latitude of Stonehenge (51.17° N) four thousand years ago.
  12. ↑ Woodward, Ann; Hunter, John (2015). Ritual in Early Bronze Age Grave Goods. Oxbow Books. p. 238. ISBN   9781782976974. it is an intriguing coincidence that the acute angles of the lozenge groove-bands are approximately 81°, which is effectively the difference between the two solstice alignments in the Stonehenge area.
  13. 1 2 Stonehenge's Richest Man: The Bush Barrow Chieftain (British Museum 2022). The point at the top and the bottom [of the Bush Barrow gold lozenge] has a very precise angle of 81 degrees. That's the same angle between where the sun rises at midwinter and midsummer solstices, so it has an astronomical importance. And the very finely detailed embossed decoration, particularly around the outer border, is laid out to a tolerance of less than half a millimetre. What that tells us is they understood astronomy, geometry and mathematics, 4,000 years ago.
  14. ↑ "Bush Barrow Lozenge". Wiltshire Museum. The carefully laid out design of the lozenge shows a detailed knowledge of geometry. The sharpest angle is similar to that between the summer and winter solstice.
  15. ↑ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN   978-1-84217-215-5. Megalithic-style linear motifs – including chevrons and lozenges – reappeared in the earliest Bronze Age, when they are found on British long-necked beakers from single burials and are also characteristic of the most prestigious metalwork, namely Irish gold lunulae. These motifs – or better 'symbols' – continued into the time of the Wessex Culture, when they made their appearance in the shape and decoration of the prestigious Bush Barrow and Clandon breastplates and the gold-nail inlay of the Bush Barrow hilt and its associated bone mounts. … The survival of these motifs or symbols associated with burials, rituals and elites must indicate a continuation of some Megalithic traditions, beliefs and cult practices into the Early Bronze Age.
  16. ↑ Grigsby, John (2018). Skyscapes, Landscapes, and the Drama of Proto-Indo-European Myth (PhD). Bournemouth University. p. 202. lozenges are the mainstay of Neolithic art in Britain – from the forms found on Grooved ware artwork, synonymous with the henges, to the later Bush Barrow lozenge – but also common on megalithic petroglyphs and artefacts such as the Folkton drums.
  17. ↑ Teather, Anne; Chamberlain, Andrew; Parker Pearson, Mike (2018). "The chalk drums from Folkton and Lavant: Measuring devices from the time of Stonehenge". British Journal for the History of Mathematics. 34 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1080/17498430.2018.1555927. S2CID   189372696. we propose that there is a direct link between the design of the monument of Stonehenge and the chalk artefacts known as the Folkton and Lavant Drums, in which the Drums represent measurement standards that were essential for accurate and reproducible monument construction. ... The diameters, and hence the circumferences, of these four drums form a mathematical harmonic sequence
  18. ↑ UCL (21 December 2018). "Folkton Drums could have been measuring devices used to build Stonehenge". UCL News. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2019. The existence of these measuring devices implies an advanced knowledge in prehistoric Britain of geometry and of the mathematical properties of circles.
  19. 1 2 David Keys (17 September 2014). "Stonehenge's most intricate archaeological finds were 'probably made by children'". The Independent.
  20. ↑ Melrose, Robin (2010). The Druids and King Arthur: A New View of Early Britain. McFarland. p. 96. ISBN   978-0-7864-6005-2.
  21. 1 2 Khan, Urmee (22 October 2008). "Britain's 'most important archeological' discovery found in desk drawer". Daily Telegraph.
  22. ↑ "Where did the gold from the time of Stonehenge come from? Analysing the Bush Barrow dagger". Wiltshire Museum. 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  23. ↑ Ehser, Gregor; Borg; Pernicka, Ernst (August 2011). "Provenance of the gold of the Early Bronze Age Nebra Sky Disk, central Germany: geochemical characterization of natural gold from Cornwall". European Journal of Mineralogy. 23 (6): 895–910. doi:10.1127/0935-1221/2011/0023-2140.
  24. ↑ Urbanus, Jason (2015). "Bronze Age Ireland's Taste in Gold". Archaeology. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  25. ↑ "Bush Barrow dagger". Wiltshire Museum. 2022.
  26. ↑ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN   978-1-84217-215-5.
  27. ↑ "Bush Barrow – Gold Studs". Wiltshire Museum.
  28. 1 2 Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (15 April 2008). A Dictionary of Archaeology. Blackwell. pp. 125–126. ISBN   9780470751961. The [Bush Barrow] staff mounts resemble grave goods recovered from Mycenae - though there are also parallels in gold objects found in Brittany - and have provoked continuing debates as to whether the Wessex elite responsible for Bush Barrow were in some sort of contact with the Mycenaean culture of the Mediterranean.
  29. ↑ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN   978-1-84217-215-5. It is difficult to date the chevron-shaped bone or ivory mount from the Spanish coast near Alicante, because its find-circumstances have not been recorded. Brandherm (1996, 51) connects it with the northern province of the El Argar Culture. Its Mycenaean parallels come from Shaft Grave Iota, circle B, which contained pottery of Middle Helladic type and should mark the very beginning of the Shaft Grave series, presumably dating to the 17th century BC and probably slightly later than the comparable pieces from Bush Barrow with which they are traditionally connected.
  30. ↑ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN   978-1-84217-215-5. the Bush Barrow bone chevrons have third-millennium sheet-gold prototypes from Breton megalithic tombs.
  31. ↑ Nicolas, Clément (December 2017). "Arrows of Power from Brittany to Denmark (2500–1700 BC)". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 83: 247–287. doi:10.1017/ppr.2017.5. S2CID   164263365.
  32. ↑ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN   978-1-84217-215-5. The traditional contact finds between Wessex and Mycenae, i.e. the gold-pin decoration of the Bush Barrow and Breton dagger hafts and the Bush Barrow zig-zag bone mounts of the earlier second millennium, all have their roots in the west, where some can be traced back to the Copper Age. Their appearance in the Mediterranean, however, cannot as yet be dated before the earliest Shaft Graves of Grave circle B of the end of the Middle Helladic Bronze Age and its transition to the Late, a period now assigned to the 17th century BC or earlier.
  33. ↑ Dickinson, O.T.P.K (1977). The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation. Coronet Books Inc. the bone mounts from Shaft Grave I, paralleled in bone from Bush Barrow in Wessex and in gold from the Kerlagat grave in Brittany, probably represent another object, perhaps a staff, imported from Europe, since they have no local antecedents.
  34. ↑ Maran, Joseph (January 2013). "Bright as the sun: The appropriation of amber objects in Mycenaean Greece". In Hahn, Hans Peter; Weiss, Hadas (eds.). Mobility, Meaning and the Transformations of Things. Oxbow Books. pp. 147–169. ISBN   978-1-84217-525-5. In Greece, amber objects first make their appearance in the seventeenth or sixteenth centuries BCE at the very beginning of the Mycenaean period. ... the amber objects had not reached Greece from the Baltic, but, mostly as finished products, from the area of the Wessex culture of southern England. ... The transmission of amber objects from the Wessex culture to Greece during the LH I phase predates the earliest appearance of components of amber necklaces, including spacer plates, in graves of the Tumulus Burial culture.
  35. ↑ de Vree, Christine (2021). "The Tholos Tombs of Kakovatos: Their Place in Early Mycenaean Greece". In Eder, Birgitta; Zavadil, Michaela (eds.). (Social) Place and Space in Early Mycenaean Greece. Austrian Academy of Sciences. pp. 85–106. doi:10.1553/978OEAW88544. ISBN   978-3-7001-8854-4. S2CID   236720096.
  36. ↑ Whittaker, Helène (2017). "The North from the perspective of the Greek mainland in the Late Bronze Age". In Bergerbrant, Sophie; Wessman, Anna (eds.). New Perspectives on the Bronze Age. Archaeopress. pp. 395–402. ISBN   978-1-78491-598-8. Much, even if not all, of the amber that found its way to the Greek mainland in the early part of the Late Bronze Age seems to have been imported as finished necklaces of the crescentic or lunate type associated with the Early Bronze Age Wessex culture in south-central Britain. Rectangular spacer plates and trapezoid end pieces of the same type as those found in Britain have been found at Mycenae in the Argolid and at Pylos and Kakovatos in Messenia. ... The crescentic amber necklaces found in Britain are similar in shape to the gold collars known as lunulae and are believed to have had the same symbolic meaning..
  37. ↑ Maran, Joseph (January 2013). "Bright as the sun: The appropriation of amber objects in Mycenaean Greece". In Hahn, Hans Peter; Weiss, Hadas (eds.). Mobility, Meaning and the Transformations of Things. Oxbow Books. pp. 147–169. ISBN   978-1-84217-525-5. while in the Early Bronze Age in the British Isles amber is by no means confined to elite tombs, special forms like crescentic amber necklaces with spacer plates and trapezoid end-pieces remain restricted to the richest Wessex burials. This exactly corresponds to the find situation of amber jewellery with spacer plates in the Early Mycenaean Peloponnese, thus emphasizing that in both regions such special amber objects were confined to the very small group of the most richly furnished burials.
  38. 1 2 Papadimitriou, Nikolas; Konstantinidi-Syvridi, Eleni; Goumas, Akis (2021). "A demanding gold-working technique attested in Armorican/Wessex and Early Mycenaean funerary contexts". Bulletin de l'Association pour la Promotion des Recherches sur l'Age du Bronze (APRAB). 19: 26–33. In this paper we examine a demanding gold-working technique, which was used for the decoration of prestigious weapons in two distant parts of Bronze Age Europe: a) EBA Armorique and Southern England (Wessex culture) and b) Mycenaean Greece.
  39. ↑ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN   978-1-84217-215-5. Over a hundred years ago Reinecke (1902b) compared the gold-pin inlay of the Bush Barrow and Breton dagger hilts with similarly decorated hafts from the Mycenaean Shaft Graves. ... the western hilts are still the best parallels for the Mycenaean examples. As demonstrated by Sakellariou (1984) gold-pin decoration is foreign to the Aegean prior the Shaft Grave period and its origin must, therefore, be sought in the Atlantic West.
  40. ↑ "Mycenaean Gold-working and parallels in Brittany and Wessex: New Research (Online Lecture)". Wiltshire Museum. 2021.
  41. ↑ Gerloff, Sabine (2010). "Von Troja an die Saale, von Wessex nach Mykene – Chronologie, Fernverbindungen und Zinnrouten der Frühbronzezeit Mittel- und Westeuropas". In Meller, Harald; Bertemes, Francois (eds.). Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale). pp. 603–639. ISBN   978-3-939414-28-5. some forms from graves of the Wessex culture found their way into Mycenae, either as originals or copies. These pieces have no precedents or comparisons in the rest of the Mediterranean and must be attributed to Atlantic models or direct imports. The most convincing and also best known examples are the lunula-shaped amber collars from contexts of the Wessex culture and from the shaft graves … Further evidence of the radiation from Wessex to Mycenae is the similarity of the dagger or sword handles decorated with gold nails ... this singular technique has no antecedents in the Mediterranean, and its best parallels and precursors still come from Wessex and Brittany. Its chronology in Mycenae corresponds roughly to that of the amber necklaces discussed above … The bone zigzag fittings of a sceptre from Bush Barrow, also appear several times as a foreign form in Mycenae ... the origin of the zigzag-shaped Mycenaean fittings should also be sought in Atlantic Europe.(Translated from German)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.