Description

Summary: 1 bronze knife dagger rivetted with nine rivets to a handle which was decorated with 21 rivets, lines and circles of dots, and had a bone pommel, rivetted to the handle with two further rivets, found with a primary inhumation (or cremation) from bowl barrow Milston G51, excavated by William Cunnington.

Research results

A Bronze Age copper alloy butt-rivetted flat dagger with a bone pommel, excavated by William Cunnington from the Milston G51 barrow. The dagger was found with a crouched primary inhumation, and is of a type now dated to early in the Bronze Age sequence, c. 2200-1950 BC. The blade had probably been intentionall damaged prior to deposition and organic traces on the blade represent the remains of a wooden sheath. Interestingly, the many rivets of the handle are in fact mostly decorative, and the blade is actually only held in place at the butt, with no actual tang continuing into the handle. A group of similar rivets and copper alloy sheet fragments were recovered by Cunnington from the later and extremely rich Bush Barrow grave (Wilsford G5) a small distance away from the burial and other grave goods, suggesting that an earlier grave might have gone unrecognised.

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.