Description

Summary: 1 miniature (incense) or 'grape' cup with one line of perforations around waist and decorated with 5 rows of nodules and an inwardly curving rim, found behind a primary female inhumation in Bowl barrow Preshute G1a, excavated by Howard B. Cunnington, 1907.

Research results

An Early Bronze Age ceramic 'grape cup' excavated with a primary inhumation in bowl barrow Preshute G1a, excavated by Howard Cunnington in 1907. The vessel was found with a female inhumation buried with a number of other grave goods made of a variety of substances: in addition to gold and amber pendants were shale, chalk and stone beads a copper alloy dagger and awls and an amber pommel. The cup is decorated with a number of applied clay pellets creating the grape bunch-like effect but which is actually highly reminiscent to fossil sea urchins commonly found in the local chalk.

Jones (2012) discusses Early Bronze Age miniature vessels as part of an exploration of how scale impacts our experiences of materiality. He argues that models are a representation of the essence of the objects that they miniaturise; the wessex miniature vessels are part of a wider suite of miniature objects and exotic grave goods that Jones argues represents a pattern of cosmological acquisition, which through their materials and form embody distant connections through the demonstration of specialised knowledge. He also suggests that the vessels are often relatively poorly made and may have been made specifically for inclusion in the graves.

This object was examined by Jones and Bruck (2018) as part of their discussion of the importance of fossils in Early Bronze Age graves. They highlight the resemblence of 'grape cups' to fossil enchinoids (sea urchins) commonly found in upland chalk geology and suggest this would have imparted certain properties and meaning upon the vessel. They also note the regular occurance of fossil beads in necklaces, as well as beads of other materials made to resemble fossils; for example segmented faience beads. They highlight that Bronze Age society would have understood these fossils in a completely different way to modern western society, and suggest that these objects were included in grave assemblages (or indeed the barrows themselves) for the meaning they conveyed. Unlike the gold, amber and jet they can accompany, these fossils and fossil skuemorphs are not particularly exotic or 'high status', and thus highlight that these graves should not be exclusively seen as displays of individual wealth or status.

This vessel was re-examined by Copper (2017) as part of their Mphil with the University of Bradford, which covered all of the Early Bronze Age miniature vessels in Southern Britain. They divide the corpus into four groups: miniature, bi-conical, simple, and elaborate, and argue that most are derivations of late beaker and early food vessel imitations. Investigating the contexts of these vessels, they found that most were associated with primary cremations in round barrows, with no clear correlation with either age or sex – although noting that there was only limited evidence for the latter.