Description

Summary: 1 segmented faience bead with ten segments, found with a primary cremation in confluent Bowl Barrow Wilsford G46, excavated by William Cunnington.

Research results

A Bronze Age faience bead, found with a primary cremation in the south east mound of confluent bowl barrow Wilsford G46, excavated by William Cunnington. This group comprises of two stone beads and a faience bead, although originally three further faience beads, two amber beads and an awl were also found (now lost). Early Bronze Age beads are commonly found with cremations, but normally these groups only contain a single bead in this material, necklace groups with multiple faience beads are limited mostly to the Wessex region.

Faience beads in Britain and Ireland were discussed by Sheridan and Shortland (2004) in their reassesment of the evidence as part of the National Museum of Scotland's faience project. This project obtained new radiocarbon dates for a number of burials containing faience beads across the country, pushing back the presumed date of the appearance of faience beads in Britain to c. 2,000 BC, with a currecny lasting to around 1,500BC. Their reanalysis of the composition and production of these beads has suggested that they were infact produced in Britain, rather than imported as was previously assumed, and may be linked to the tin trade of South-Western Britain.

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.