Description

Summary: 1 gold-bound shale bead encompassed by 5 bands, each engraved with 3 grooves, found with primary female inhumation in Bowl barrow Preshute G1a, excavated by Howard B. Cunnington, 1907.

Research results

A Bronze Age gold-bound bead, probably made of lignite, found with the primary inhumation of bowl barrow Preshute G1a when it was excavated by Howard Cunnington in 1907. The burial belonged to a elderly woman who had been buried crouched on her side; she was buried with a number of grave goods but this bead forms one part of a group of beads and pendants which were found in a small heap behind and above the head of the burial.

Faience beads in Britain and Ireland were discussed by Sheridan and Shortland (2004) in their reassesment of the evidence as part of the National Museum of Scotland's faience project. This project obtained new radiocarbon dates for a number of burials containing faience beads across the country, allowing for a reassessment of their chronology and production. The suggest that grooved beads such as this might have been influenced by segmented faience beads.

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.

This object was on loan to the University of Leicester (February 2023) for wear and compositional analyses. Non-destructive techniques using microscopes, X-Ray Fluorescence and a Scanning Electron Microscope. The project will improve our understanding about how the objects were made, used and deposited. This research, funded by the British Academy, was led by Dr Rachel Crellin, and supported by Dr Christina Tsoraki, Dr Oliver Harris and Dr Christopher Standish. 'From Prestige to Practice: Shedding New Light on Early Bronze Age Gold through Microwear and Scanning Electron Microscope Analysis'. Results are expected in 2024.