Description

Summary: 10 shale beads (one broken) and two shale rings found with 11 amber STHEAD.14b and 10 faience beads STHEAD.14c from an amber, shale and faience necklace found with a primary cremation in bell barrow (with outer bank) Upton Lovell G1, excavated by William Cunnington

Research results

A group of 9 jet beads and two shale rings found with a primary cremation in Bell Barrow Upton Lovell G1, excavated in the early 19th century. These beads form one part of an elaborate necklace set combining amber, faience shale and jet components, many of which may have originated in different articles of jewellery. Unfortunately, only around 30 of an original 58 beads described in 1812 have survived.

This object was examined as part of the research published in Ritual in Early Bronze Age Grave Goods; a six-year research project carried out by Professor John Hunter and Dr Anne Woodward and funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Aided by a large number of other specialists the pair undertood an exhuastive study examining over 1000 objects held in 13 museums across the country in order to provide an extensive overview of burial practices in the period and identify regional practices.

Wilkin (2011) discusses red deer antler found within the body of the mound alongside a number of other Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age graves in Wiltshire, Dorset, and Oxfordshire, in order to explore the significance of the inclusion of animal remains in graves of this period for human-animal relationships. They suggest that whilst these are not frequent inclusions, only appearing in 15% of graves, they are disproportionately non-meat bearing elements such as skulls, horns, and antlers and may have had symbolic connotations. He suggests that animal remains linked practical and cosmological concerns; for example: the quality of a year’s antler harvest may have impacted communities’ ability to construct a monument, tying social identities to natural cycles. The inclusion of domestic cattle and wild deer in the same graves may have had significance in terms of how the dichotomy of hunting and farming was viewed by contemporary communities, whilst the animal remains themselves may have referenced the inherent characteristic of the animals themselves and assisted in the evocation of spirits or powers, or have had symbolic potential.