Description

Summary: 1 circular stone rubber found with a primary male and female (shaman/metalworker?) inhumation in bowl barrow Upton Lovell G2a, excavated by William Cunnington

Research results

A hexagonal sectioned stone with a wide, flat facet found deposited together with a primary double burial of a male and female, often interpreted as a metalworker or Shaman's burial. This is one of a number of stone tools from the burial which were probably used in metal working; this stone was proabably used as an anvil. Traces of an unanalysed gold-like residue are also visible on the stone.

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.

This object, along with the other grave goods found with the primary double-inhumation of Upton Lovell G2a, has 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 stone's use as a tool for shaping and finishing metal working tools.