Description

Summary: 1 miniature bronze halbard with gold haft engraved with 12 bands of 3 lines, found by head of a primary female inhumation in Bowl barrow Preshute G1a, excavated by Howard B. Cunnington, 1907.

Research results

A Bronze Age gold bound halberd pandant, found with the primary inhumation of bowl barrow Preshute G1a, excavated by Howard Cunnington in 1907. This wealthy grave belonged to an elderly woman who had been buried crouched on her side; she had been buried with a grape cup, three awls, a small dagger with an amber pommel, and a number of articles of jewellery, of which this is one. One of three known, these unusual pendants are in the form of miniature halberds, and were suspended from a perforation at the base of the 'handle'. Whilst they are almost certainly locally made, by the time that they were being produced halberds had already gone out of use in the British Bronze Age, and in fact the banded decoration of these pendants much more closely resembles contemporary, metal-handled halberds from Germany and Poland! The pendant was found in a heap of other beads near the head of the burial, and was probably part of a composite necklace.

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.