Description

Summary: A 5 segmented faience bead found in a collared urn of secondary burial I, Bell barrow, Site III, Snail Down, Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire.

Research results

A segmented faience bead found with a secondary cremation in bell barrow Collingbourne Kingston G8, excavated by Nicolas Thomas in the 1950s. These beads form part of a small necklace set that had been deposited with the cremation of a probable child; the burial, contained in an upright collared urn, had been placed in a small pit and covered by a cairn of flints containing a jet pendant.

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, pushing back the presumed date of the appearance of faience beads in Britain to c. 2,000 BC, with a currecny lasting to around 1,500BC. Their reanalysis of the composition and production of these beads has suggested that they were infact produced in Britain, rather than imported as was previously assumed, and may be linked to the tin trade of South-Western Britain.

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.