Description

Summary: 1 narrow rounded wristguard with a convex back of highly polished stone with two holes at either end, locality unknown, but possibly from Tring, Herts. (An alternative possibility is that it is the missing bracer from Mere G6a, Woodward and Hunter's research suggests this is unlikely)

Research results

An Early Bronze Age stone wrist guard or bracer, purchased by the museum in 1883 as part of the Stourhead Collection, but with an uncertain source, probably Tring, in Hertfordshire. The bracer, which was probably sewn onto clothing around the forearm, is made from stone from the Langdale Tuff, famously the source of earlier Group VI polished axeheads, suggesting that the stone may have retained symbolic importance. The function of bracers is uncertain, a role in archery and falconry have bith been suggested, but neither is satisfactory.

This category of artefact is discussed by Wallis (2014), who critiques their interpretation as potential guards for use in falconry. They argue that they would have been wholly unsuitable for this purpose as it would have still required the use of a leather gauntlet, and would pose a threat to the bird during take off (as talons could have become caught). They also note that in many cases the weight of the bird and the shifting of their talons would have damaged these relatively fine bracers. Finally, they also highlight the lack of convincing faunal remains for falconry before the late Roman period.

This object has been examined by Tsoraki et al. (in prep.) as part of the Beyond the Three Age System project. This analysis identified use wear consistent with its being mounted against a hard material applying transverse pressure, it also identified traces of gold applied to the dorsal surface.

Woodward & Hunter (2011) have examined all of the stone bracers from Britain and note some interesting themes. They suggest that bracers were ultimately introduced to Britain from the continent, bracers on the latter tend to be red or black, whilst those in Britain, except for the earliest examples which may in fact be imports, tend to be grey-green, perhaps due to a resemblence to Jadeite. Within the British corpus they are also able to identify two clear groups: one, focused on Wessex and the Thames Valley, tends to be earlier and are produced from Cornish or Welsh amphibolite stone sources, whilst the other has a more northerly distribution and is slightly later, produced from the Langdale Tuff, in Cumbria, a well known source of polished axeheads.