Description

Summary: 1 miniature cup perforated at four sides and decorated on top half with two bands of dots in a strange configuration (possibly lozenge shaped), each bordered by a dual line of dots which also surrounds the waist and base. A circle and cross of three lines of dots is also found on the base. Found in the side of Bowl Barrow Wilsford G40, excavator unknown.

Research results

A Bronze Age miniature vessel found by chance by workmen digging into the side of the barrow Wilsford G40.

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.