grape cup
![A beautiful responsive image](https://ciim-public-media-s3.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wessex_mp_wilts/S172.jpg)
Description
Summary: 1 incense 'grape' cup, decorated with four bands of tiny nodules around sides and one band of fingernail impressed herringbone chevrons around neck, rim and base (and perforated twice in side for suspension) found with a primary cremation in the bowl barrow, Amesbury G19a, excavated by William Cunnington.
Research results
An Early Bronze Age ceramic grape cup, found with a primary cremation in bowl barrow Amesbury G19a, excavated by William Cunnington. The cup is named for the applied nodules of clay placed around its sides, but is actually probably immitating the fossilised sea urchins found relatively commonly in the local chalk.
Jones (2012) discusses Early Bronze Age miniature vessels as part of an exploration of how scale impacts our experiences of materiality. He argues that models are a representation of the essence of the objects that they miniaturise; the wessex miniature vessels are part of a wider suite of miniature objects and exotic grave goods that Jones argues represents a pattern of cosmological acquisition, which through their materials and form embody distant connections through the demonstration of specialised knowledge. He also suggests that the vessels are often relatively poorly made and may have been made specifically for inclusion in the graves.
This object was examined by Jones and Bruck (2018) as part of their discussion of the importance of fossils in Early Bronze Age graves. They highlight the resemblence of 'grape cups' to fossil enchinoids (sea urchins) commonly found in upland chalk geology and suggest this would have imparted certain properties and meaning upon the vessel. They also note the regular occurance of fossil beads in necklaces, as well as beads of other materials made to resemble fossils; for example segmented faience beads. They highlight that Bronze Age society would have understood these fossils in a completely different way to modern western society, and suggest that these objects were included in grave assemblages (or indeed the barrows themselves) for the meaning they conveyed. Unlike the gold, amber and jet they can accompany, these fossils and fossil skuemorphs are not particularly exotic or 'high status', and thus highlight that these graves should not be exclusively seen as displays of individual wealth or status.
This vessel was re-examined by Copper (2017) as part of their Mphil with the University of Bradford, which covered all of the Early Bronze Age miniature vessels in Southern Britain. They divide the corpus into four groups: miniature, bi-conical, simple, and elaborate, and argue that most are derivations of late beaker and early food vessel imitations. Investigating the contexts of these vessels, they found that most were associated with primary cremations in round barrows, with no clear correlation with either age or sex – although noting that there was only limited evidence for the latter.
Not found what you are looking for? Try a new search or search the Wessex Museums Virtual Collection.