Ritual in Early Bronze Age Grave GoodsThe exotic and impressive grave goods from burials of the ÔWessex CultureÕ in Early Bronze Age Britain are well known and have inspired influential social and economic hypotheses, invoking the former existence of chiefs, warriors and merchants and high-ranking pastoralists. Alternative theories have sought to explain the how display of such objects was related to religious and ritual activity rather than to economic status, and that groups of artefacts found in certain graves may have belonged to religious specialists. This volume is the result of a major research that aimed to investigate Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age grave goods in relation to their possible use as special dress accessories or as equipment employed within ritual activities and ceremonies. Many items of adornment can be shown to have formed elements of elaborate costumes, probably worn by individuals, both male and female, who held important ritual roles within society. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that various categories of object long interpreted as mundane types of tool were in fact items of bodily adornment or implements used in ritual contexts, or in the special embellishment of the human body. Although never intended to form a complete catalogue of all the relevant artefacts from England the volume provides an extensive, and intensively illustrated, overview of a large proportion of the grave goods from English burial sites. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
METHODOLOGY | 8 |
ITEMS OF EQUIPMENT I DAGGERS POMMELS AND BELT FITTINGS | 23 |
ITEMS OF EQUIPMENT II STONE BONE COPPER ALLOY
AND MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS | 69 |
ITEMS OF PERSONAL ADORNMENT I JET AND JETLIKE MATERIALS
AMBER BONE AND COPPER ALLOY | 141 |
ITEMS OF PERSONAL ADORNMENT II GOLD AND THE REGALIA
FROM BUSH BARROW | 209 |
NECKLACES I DISC BEADS AND SPACER PLATE NECKLACES | 261 |
NECKLACES II SIMPLE AND COMPOSITE NECKLACES | 389 |
CHRONOLOGY | 461 |
OBJECT LIFE STORIES | 472 |
OBJECT FUNCTION | 496 |
REGIONAL VARIATION | 539 |
CONCLUSIONS | 555 |
561 | |
571 | |
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Common terms and phrases
amber beads Amesbury Amesbury Archer antler awls bead ID Beaker Beaker period belt blade BM Figure bone points borehole bracers Bronze Age graves burial Bush Barrow cal BC Chapter chips Collared Urn colour COMPLETENESS AND DAMAGE components composite necklaces copper alloy cremation daggers decoration detail Dev Figure drill Early Bronze Age East Yorkshire edge examples faience fastener flat Food Vessels fragments fusiform beads Garton Slack globular beads grooves heirloom hilt holes illustrated ID inhumation jet and jet-like jet-like materials Little Cressingham manufacture MORPHOLOGY Museum Needham North Yorkshire Norton Bavant object types ornaments overall Peak District pendants perforation diameter polished pommels probably Raunds ring Series shale shape sheen side slightly worn Snailwell spacer plate necklaces spatulae striations strung studs surface surviving Table tanged terminal plates thread-wear traces Upton Lovell Upton Lovell G2e V-perforated buttons Wessex Wilsford Wilsford G5 Wilts Wiltshire Wimborne St Giles Winterbourne Stoke Wold