Description

Summary: 5 hammerstones or polishing stones - 2 of dark volcanic rock and 3 of dense quartzite, found with a primary male and female (shaman/metalworker?) inhumation in bowl barrow Upton Lovell G2a, excavated by William Cunnington

Research results

A group of stone tools excavated by William Cunnington from the bowl barrow Upton Lovell G2a, the 'shaman' burial. The stones were deposited with a primary double inhumation of a crouched male and female, who had been deposited with a large number of objects, including a jet belt ring, a large number of perforated bone points and boar tusks, a bronze awl and polished flint and stone axes. Many of the stone tools with which they were buried appear to form part of a metal workers toolkit.

These objects, along with the other grave goods found with the primary double-inhumation of Upton Lovell G2a, have been analysed by Tsoraki et al. (2022) as part of the Beyond the Three Age System project. The analysis identified use wear consistent with the stones' use as metal working tools as well as traces of gold on two of the stones, although the traces on one of the stones has an unusual composition for Bronze Age metalwork, and may suggest contamination.

This grave group has been discussed by Boutoille (2019), who notes that it is exceptional in both the quantity of metal working tools and also their character, as although other hammerstones made from polished stone axeheads are known, this is the only grave in which they are found as grave goods. Boutoille discusses these objects as part of a preliminary survey of Bronze Age metal working tools in Britain and Ireland, noting that the range of metal working tools found in Britain appears to be more limited than than on the continent, although that it would still have supported a range of methods. She also notes that metal working tools from graves in the Early Bronze Age only tend to consist of those for finer work, with heavier hammers known from other contexts.