Description

Summary: 1 convex v-perforated shale button, found with a primary inhumation in a flat grave under a sarcen at Durrington Walls.

Research results

A Bronze Age jet plano-convex button, found with a flat inhumation below a large sarsen at Durrington Walls by a shepherd in 1809. A large number of jet buttons are known from beaker-age burials in Britain and Ireland, although a small number are known from later in the bronze age, mainly from burials in Wessex. This button was also found with a sponge finger stone, and shale belt ring.

Discovered in 1809 by a shepherd, the location of the Durrington sarsen grave was never recorded precisely in the writings of Colt Hoare or Cunnington and was thought lost. Re-examining this grave group and its discovery, Higham and Carey (2019) suggest that the sarsen under which the burial was deposited corresponds to that recorded on the 1887 ordnance survey map, in the north-West corner of Durrington Walls’ henge ditch. In the absence of any human remains, they date the burial to the period after c.2200 (the fission horizon), post-dating the main phase of activity at Durrington. They note that the grave group is exceptional, and potentially includes a number of heirlooms, making it especially odd that the group does not contain a beaker, something that they suggest was a deliberate choice.

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.