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Bush Barrow

Coordinates: 51°10′14″N 1°50′05″W / 51.17051°N 1.834819°W / 51.17051; -1.834819
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Bush Barrow
Misty view of Bush Barrow
Bush Barrow on Normanton Down
Bush Barrow is located in Wiltshire
Bush Barrow
Shown within Wiltshire
Locationgrid reference SU11644126
Coordinates51°10′14″N 1°50′05″W / 51.17051°N 1.834819°W / 51.17051; -1.834819
TypeTumulus
Part ofNormanton Down round barrow cemetery
History
PeriodsBronze Age
Site notes
Excavation dates1808
ArchaeologistsWilliam Cunnington
OwnershipManaged as RSPB Reserve
Public accessNo (but near bridleway)
WebsiteWiltshire Museum Gallery
Official nameStonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
TypeCultural
Criteriai, ii, iii
Designated1986 (10th session)
Reference no.373
RegionEurope and North America
Designated1925
Reference no.1009618

Bush Barrow is a site of the early British Bronze Age Wessex culture (c. 2000 BC), at the western end of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. It is among the most important sites of the Stonehenge complex, having produced some of the most spectacular grave goods in Britain. It was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare. The finds, including worked gold objects, are displayed at Wiltshire Museum in Devizes.

Description

Bush Barrow contents on display at the World of Stonehenge exhibition in the British Museum.[1]
Design of the larger of the Bush Barrow gold lozenges
Hexagon geometry was employed in both lozenge forms. Note the lozenges are not to relative scale. After Johnson 2008
Boundary of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, with the location of Bush Barrow
Angles and alignments of the Bush Barrow lozenge.[2]

Bush Barrow is situated around 1 kilometre southwest of Stonehenge on Normanton Down. It forms part of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery.[3] The surviving earthworks have an overall diameter of 49 metres (161 ft) and comprise a large mound with breaks in the slope suggesting three phases of development.[3] The barrow currently stands 3.3 metres high and its summit measures 10.5 metres in diameter.[3]

The barrow is one of the "associated sites" in the World Heritage Site covering Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (Cultural, ID 373, 1986).[4] The Normanton Down round barrow cemetery comprises some 40 barrows strung out along an east-west aligned ridge. Bush Barrow (so named by Cunnington because it had bushes on it) is towards the western end of the line of barrows, sited at the highest point of the ridge.[5]

Contents

Larger gold lozenge with gold belt buckle and a copper dagger, on display at the Wiltshire Museum.

The barrow was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare.[3] It contained a male skeleton with a collection of funerary goods that make it "the richest and most significant example of a Bronze Age burial monument not only in the Normanton Group or in association with Stonehenge, but arguably in the whole of Britain".[5] The items date the burial to the early Bronze Age, circa 1900 BC, and include a large 'lozenge'-shaped sheet of gold, a sheet gold belt plate, three bronze daggers, a bronze axe, a stone macehead and bronze rivets, all on display at the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.[6]

Bush Barrow Lozenge

The design of the artifact known as the Bush Barrow Lozenge, and the smaller lozenge, has been shown to be based on a hexagon construction. Both the shape and the decorative panels appear to have been created by repeating hexagons within a series of three concentric circles (each framing the series of smaller decorative panels).[7] The precision and accuracy displayed by the work demonstrates both a sophisticated tool kit and a sound knowledge of geometric form. A similar gold lozenge from Clandon Barrow, in Dorset, used a decagon in its design.[8][9]

The design of the Bush Barrow Lozenge also indicates that it has an astronomical meaning. The acute angles of the overall design (81°) are equal to the angle between the midsummer and midwinter solstice sunrises, as seen at the latitude of Stonehenge.[10][11] A similar feature is seen on the contemporary Nebra sky disc, where the angle formed by the gold arcs on the edge of the disc (82°) is equal to the angle between the solstices at the latitude of the Mittelberg hill where the disc was found.[12][13] John North (1996) suggests that the angles of the Clandon Barrow lozenge could similarly correspond to the solstices at the latitude of Brittany, or to the lunar cycle at the latitude of southern England.[14] When the sides of the Bush Barrow lozenge are aligned with the solstices, the long axis of the lozenge will also point to the equinox sunrise.[15] According to David Dawson, Director of the Wiltshire Museum, the design and precision of the Bush Barrow Lozenge shows that its makers "understood astronomy, geometry and mathematics, 4,000 years ago."[16]

Archaeologist Anthony Johnson argues this understanding of geometry has its origins in the preceding Megalithic/ Henge culture.[17] Euan Mackie, following Alexander Thom, also suggests a Megalithic origin for the knowledge of astronomy.[18] A connection between geometry and astronomy has been noted in the layout of Stonehenge and other Megalithic sites, such as the Crucuno Rectangle in Brittany.[19] According to archaeologist Sabine Gerloff (2007), the use of lozenge and zig-zag forms, which also appear on Bell Beaker pottery and gold lunulae, indicates "a continuation of some Megalithic traditions, beliefs and cult practices into the Early Bronze Age".[20] Lozenges are also depicted on the Folkton Drums,[21] which are thought to represent measuring devices used in the construction Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments.[22][23] John North has further identified "submultiples of the Megalithic Yard" in the design of the Bush Barrow Lozenge.[24]

Daggers

Two of the bronze daggers have the largest blades of any from their period, whilst a third had a 30 centimetres (12 in) long wooden hilt originally decorated with up to 140,000 tiny gold studs forming a herringbone pattern. The studs are around 0.2 millimetres (0.0079 in) wide and 1 millimetre (0.039 in) in length with over a thousand studs embedded in each square centimetre.[25][26] David Dawson has stated that: "The gold studs are remarkable evidence of the skill and craftsmanship of Bronze Age goldsmiths – quite rightly described as 'the work of the gods'".[27] Optician Ronald Rabbetts has said that "Only children and teenagers, and those adults who had become myopic naturally or due to the nature of their work as children, would have been able to create and manufacture such tiny objects."[25]

Scientific analyses indicate that the gold originated from Cornwall.[28] This was also the source of gold used to make the Nebra sky disc and Irish gold lunulae.[29][30] The dagger may have been made in either Britain or Brittany (Armorica), where similar examples of gold-stud decoration are known.[31] Gold-stud decoration was also used on the amber pommel of a dagger from Hammeldon Down Barrow in Devon, dating from the Wessex II period.[32]

The hilt of the Bush Barrow dagger lay forgotten for over 40 years from the 1960s, having been sent to Professor Atkinson at Cardiff University, and was found by one of his successors in 2005.[27]

Antique knife

Some bronze rivets and other bronze fragments have been identified as the remains of a knife dating from about 2400 BC, suggesting that the Bush Barrow chieftain may have belonged to a "noble dynasty" dating back to the time of Stonehenge's construction.[33]

Stone mace

An unusual stone mace head lay to the right of the Bush Barrow skeleton, made out of a rare fossilized stromatoporoid (sea sponge), originating in Devon or Cornwall. It had a wooden handle, from which decorative zig-zag-shaped bone mounts survive. The mace is considered to be a symbol of power or authority.[34] Similar bone mounts have been found in Grave Circle B at Mycenae in Greece,[35][6] at Illeta dels Banyets in Spain (associated with the Argaric culture),[36] and in gold form at Carnac in Brittany (associated with the Bell Beaker culture).[37][38]

Various authors have suggested a connection between the bone mounts in Britain and those in Greece, where they appear without local antecedents.[39][40][41] This is supported by the finding of amber necklaces from Britain in the elite shaft graves at Mycenae (Grave circles A and B).[42][43][44] According to Joseph Maran (2013), "In Greece, amber objects first make their appearance in the seventeenth or sixteenth centuries BCE at the very beginning of the Mycenaean period. ... the amber objects had not reached Greece from the Baltic, but, mostly as finished products, from the area of the Wessex culture of southern England. ... There is an amazing similarity between the shaft grave period and the Wessex culture not only in the amber items as such and their close association with gold, but also in the social contexts of the appearance of amber jewellery … in both regions such special amber objects were confined to the very small group of the most richly furnished burials.”[45]

Close similarities have also been noted between the gold-stud decoration of the Bush Barrow dagger and the decoration of elite weapons in Mycenaean Greece.[46][47] The gold-stud technique is exclusively attested in Britain, Armorica and Mycenaean Greece, with the oldest examples coming from Britain and Armorica. In Greece this technique, known as 'gold embroidery', first appears in the shaft graves at Mycenae.[48] According to Nikolas Papadimitriou and colleagues (2021), "Mycenaean gold embroidery first occurred in the same context as two other types of artefacts that are considered indicative of northern European links: amber spacer-plates with complex boring and weapons with in‐laid decoration."[49] According to Sabine Gerloff (2007, 2010) the gold-stud technique originated in Britain and was transferred to Greece, along with amber necklaces and zig-zag and lozenge-shaped decorative elements, including the bone mounts from Mycenae.[50] According to Gerloff the gold plating and metal-inlay techniques used on the Nebra sky disc and related artefacts (such as the Thun-Renzenbühl axe) also have their origin in Britain, and are connected to Mycenaean metalwork.[51] Daniel Berger and colleagues (2013) similarly suggest that the Mycenaean metal-inlay technique known as 'double-damascening' may have its origin in northwestern or central Europe.[52]

Wider context

It is not known why this barrow contained such rich grave goods compared to those around it. It occupies the highest point, but is not the tallest barrow, and is not obviously marked out as the principal barrow in the cemetery. In particular it is not known if other barrows in the vicinity have simply had such goods plundered long ago. Numerous finds have been made in other barrows, both by Cunnington and subsequently, but nothing to compare to these. According to Barrett and Bowden, "absence of evidence does not necessarily imply evidence of absence".[5]

See Also

References

  1. ^ "The World of Stonehenge (2022)". British Museum.
  2. ^ MacKie, Euan (March 2009). "The Prehistoric Solar Calendar: An Out-of-fashion Idea Revisited with New Evidence". Time and Mind. 2 (1): 9–46. doi:10.2752/175169709X374263. S2CID 162360353.
  3. ^ a b c d Historic England. "Bush Barrow (943060)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  4. ^ UNESCO website
  5. ^ a b c Barrett, Kate; Bowden, Mark (2010). Stonehenge World Heritage Site – Landscape Project: Normanton Down: Archaeological Survey Report (PDF). Research Department Report Series. Vol. 90–2010. English Heritage. pp. 11, 32. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Wiltshire Museum Galleries: Bush Barrow". Archived from the original on 5 March 2005. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
  7. ^ Johnson, Anthony, Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma pp 182-185 (Thames & Hudson, 2008) ISBN 978-0-500-05155-9
  8. ^ Johnson, Anthony (2008). Solving Stonehenge. Thames and Hudson. pp. 181–269. ISBN 9780500051559. The Bush Barrow lozenge shows that from the time of the construction of the first truly circular earthworks, ideas had progressed far beyond the geometry of circles to the understanding of the radii to create hexagons, the subdivision of angles, the setting out of accurate right angles and the investigation of other geometric forms including decagons and pentagons. … The sophisticated geometric design of the Bush Barrow lozenge can hardly have been a spontaneous product; the confidence of its execution proclaims it to be an evolved work based on long-established and well-practised procedures. (p.181-182) ... Both the Bush Barrow lozenges were based on hexagonal geometry. … The design of the Clandon Barrow lozenge is based on the ingenious use of a 10-sided polygon (decagon) which was then used to control the proportion and spacing of its concentric design (p.260-269)
  9. ^ Garrow, Duncan; Wilkin, Neil (June 2022). The World of Stonehenge. British Museum Press. p. 187. ISBN 9780714123493. The similarities [of the Clandon Barrow] with Bush Barrow in terms of content are remarkable: both mounds produced gold diamond-shaped plaques, both contained similar weapons, and both held extremely rare maces made from a range of exotic materials. The location of Clandon, close to the ancient ceremonial centre of Mount Pleasant, is also comparable to the privileged position of Bush Barrow near to Stonehenge.
  10. ^ MacKie, Euan (March 2009). "The Prehistoric Solar Calendar: An Out-of-fashion Idea Revisited with New Evidence". Time and Mind. 2 (1): 9–46. doi:10.2752/175169709X374263. S2CID 162360353. Ker and his colleagues found the pair of acute angles of the basic diamond pattern [of the Bush Barrow Lozenge] to be 81°. They realized that this was the angle between midsummer and midwinter sunrises (and sunsets of course) on a low horizon at the latitude of Stonehenge (51.17° N) four thousand years ago.
  11. ^ Woodward, Ann; Hunter, John (2015). Ritual in Early Bronze Age Grave Goods. Oxbow Books. p. 238. ISBN 9781782976974. it is an intriguing coincidence that the acute angles of the lozenge groove-bands are approximately 81°, which is effectively the difference between the two solstice alignments in the Stonehenge area.
  12. ^ Garrow, Duncan; Wilkin, Neil (June 2022). The World of Stonehenge. British Museum Press. pp. 145–147. ISBN 9780714123493. Taking the Sky Disc to represent the 360 degrees of a full circle, both the gold arcs occupy a very precise angle of between 82 and 83 degrees ... The arcs mark the full range of points on the horizon at which the sun sets and rises in a solar year. The terminal of each arc inscribes the summer solstice sunrise and sunset and the winter solstice sunrise and sunset as seen from the latitude of the Mittelberg 3,600 years ago. ... The marking of solstice sunrise and sunset at monuments such as Stonehenge was about the expression of religious and symbolic ideas linking the monument to the cycles of the cosmos. The same concerns were probably true of the Sky Disc
  13. ^ Concepts of cosmos in the world of Stonehenge (British Museum 2022).
  14. ^ North, John (1996). Stonehenge: A New Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos. Free Press. p. 514. ISBN 9780684845128. The two (acute) angles on the Clandon plate average at about 75 degrees and 79 degrees … It is not difficult to fit the lesser angles of the Clandon Barrow plate to the Sun's swing over an artificially (or naturally) constant horizon in the latitudes of Normandy and Brittany, around the epoch 1900 BC. Archaeologists have made much of the cultural affinities of these plates with work from Brittany, but it is not necessary to press the point, for there is another clear possibility, namely that the Moon's behaviour is involved. The amplitude of the Moon's horizon positions would have fitted well for southern English latitudes.
  15. ^ MacKie, Euan (March 2009). "The Prehistoric Solar Calendar: An Out-of-fashion Idea Revisited with New Evidence". Time and Mind. 2 (1): 9–46. doi:10.2752/175169709X374263. S2CID 162360353.
  16. ^ Stonehenge's Richest Man: The Bush Barrow Chieftain (British Museum 2022). The point at the top and the bottom [of the Bush Barrow gold lozenge] has a very precise angle of 81 degrees. That's the same angle between where the sun rises at midwinter and midsummer solstices, so it has an astronomical importance. And the very finely detailed embossed decoration, particularly around the outer border, is laid out to a tolerance of less than half a millimetre. What that tells us is they understood astronomy, geometry and mathematics, 4,000 years ago.
  17. ^ Johnson, Anthony (2008). Solving Stonehenge. Thames and Hudson. pp. 260–261. ISBN 9780500051559. By the time the sarsen structure was built at Stonehenge the surveyors had learnt to use quite complex hexagon-based constructions which involved not only the use of the radial string (to create a hexagon within a circle), but also the ability to use an axial line which formed the basis for the construction of a pentagon, the interspace between the hexagon and pentagon vertices providing the correct 30-hole spacing around the circumference. Not only is it apparent in the setting out of the stones, but also in the numbers contained within the finished arrays, where everything can be easily derived from the basic hexagon framework. In very simple terms, we have added to the tradition of square-and-circle survey the 'hexagon-and-circle' and its derivative – devices which are also clearly evident within the sophisticated geometry of the artifacts of the later Stonehenge period, particularly those found in the Bush Barrow.
  18. ^ MacKie, E (2006). "New evidence for a professional priesthood in the European Early Bronze Age?". In Todd W. Bostwick; Bryan Bates (eds.). Viewing the Sky Through Past and Present Cultures: Selected Papers from the Oxford VII International Conference on Archaeoastronomy. Pueblo Grande Museum Anthropological Papers. Vol. 15. pp. 343–362. ISBN 1-882572-38-6.
  19. ^ Ruggles, Clive (2005). Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth. ABC CLIO. pp. 119–121. ISBN 9781851094776. The twenty-two stones [of the Crucuno Rectangle] form the remains of what appears to have been an almost perfect rectangle, 33.2 meters by 24.9 meters, oriented in the cardinal directions, with the longer sides east-west. … Amazingly, this simple structure combines geometrical perfection with cardinal orientation and astronomical alignment. In addition to being a near-perfect rectangle, the lengths of its sides were in the ratio 3:4. And in addition to the sides being oriented in the cardinal directions, the diagonals are oriented toward the rising and setting positions of the sun at the two solstices. … Crucuno is located at a latitude (47.6°N) where, given a reasonably flat horizon, constructing a cardinally oriented 3:4 rectangle with its longer sides east-west will ensure the (approximate) solstitial orientation of the diagonals … The Scottish engineer Alexander Thom believed that, in addition to a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy, "megalithic man" knew a good deal of geometry, including Pythagorean triangles, and used a precise unit of measurement, the 'megalithic yard" of 0.829 meters (2.72 feet), in constructing monuments throughout the length and breadth of Britain, as well as in Brittany. … it is curious that the 3:4 ratio of side lengths is marked so clearly at Crucuno and that this implies a unit of 8.3 meters (27.2 feet), which is almost exactly ten of Thom's megalithic yards. Most of the other recorded stone rectangles in Brittany are in a dilapidated state or have been removed entirely, but similarities have been noted with the station stones at Stonehenge. These four stones marked the corners of a rectangle whose side lengths were in the ratio 5:12, another Pythagorean combination yielding a diagonal of length thirteen units. The station stone rectangle is not cardinally oriented, but its shorter sides are themselves oriented upon midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, while the longer sides align roughly with an extreme rising position of the moon. … the fact that people in the Neolithic or Bronze Age could have encapsulated four distinct characteristics—geometrical and numerological perfection, cardinal orientation, and astronomical alignments—in such a simple setting is truly remarkable.
  20. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN 978-1-84217-215-5. Megalithic-style linear motifs – including chevrons and lozenges – reappeared in the earliest Bronze Age, when they are found on British long-necked beakers from single burials and are also characteristic of the most prestigious metalwork, namely Irish gold lunulae. These motifs – or better 'symbols' – continued into the time of the Wessex Culture, when they made their appearance in the shape and decoration of the prestigious Bush Barrow and Clandon breastplates and the gold-nail inlay of the Bush Barrow hilt and its associated bone mounts. … The survival of these motifs or symbols associated with burials, rituals and elites must indicate a continuation of some Megalithic traditions, beliefs and cult practices into the Early Bronze Age.
  21. ^ Grigsby, John (2018). Skyscapes, Landscapes, and the Drama of Proto-Indo-European Myth (PhD). Bournemouth University. p. 202. lozenges are the mainstay of Neolithic art in Britain – from the forms found on Grooved ware artwork, synonymous with the henges, to the later Bush Barrow lozenge – but also common on megalithic petroglyphs and artefacts such as the Folkton drums.
  22. ^ Teather, Anne; Chamberlain, Andrew; Parker Pearson, Mike (2018). "The chalk drums from Folkton and Lavant: Measuring devices from the time of Stonehenge". British Journal for the History of Mathematics. 34 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1080/17498430.2018.1555927. S2CID 189372696. we propose that there is a direct link between the design of the monument of Stonehenge and the chalk artefacts known as the Folkton and Lavant Drums, in which the Drums represent measurement standards that were essential for accurate and reproducible monument construction. ... The diameters, and hence the circumferences, of these four drums form a mathematical harmonic sequence
  23. ^ UCL (21 December 2018). "Folkton Drums could have been measuring devices used to build Stonehenge". UCL News. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2019. The existence of these measuring devices implies an advanced knowledge in prehistoric Britain of geometry and of the mathematical properties of circles.
  24. ^ North, John (1996). Stonehenge: A New Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos. Free Press. p. 514. ISBN 9780684845128. There are [in the dimensions of the Bush Barrow lozenge] distinct traces of submultiples of 1 MY (Megalithic Yard). There are nine compartments to the central rhombus, each itself a rhombus, and each has a side almost exactly one hundredth part of Thom's Megalithic Yard. Furthermore, the shorter sides of the 36 right-angled triangles in the zigzag all approximate even more closely to exactly two such units. There seems to be good reason for believing that either the smaller unit, or its double was in use in the Stonehenge region in the early second millennium.
  25. ^ a b David Keys (17 September 2014). "Stonehenge's most intricate archaeological finds were 'probably made by children'". The Independent.
  26. ^ Melrose, Robin (2010). The Druids and King Arthur: A New View of Early Britain. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-7864-6005-2.
  27. ^ a b Khan, Urmee (22 October 2008). "Britain's 'most important archeological' discovery found in desk drawer". Daily Telegraph.
  28. ^ "Where did the gold from the time of Stonehenge come from? Analysing the Bush Barrow dagger". Wiltshire Museum. 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  29. ^ Ehser, Gregor; Borg; Pernicka, Ernst (August 2011). "Provenance of the gold of the Early Bronze Age Nebra Sky Disk, central Germany: geochemical characterization of natural gold from Cornwall". European Journal of Mineralogy. 23 (6): 895–910. doi:10.1127/0935-1221/2011/0023-2140.
  30. ^ Urbanus, Jason (2015). "Bronze Age Ireland's Taste in Gold". Archaeology. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  31. ^ "Bush Barrow dagger". Wiltshire Museum. 2022.
  32. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN 978-1-84217-215-5.
  33. ^ Stonehenge's Richest Man: The Bush Barrow Chieftain (British Museum 2022).
  34. ^ "Bush Barrow - Gold Studs". Wiltshire Museum.
  35. ^ Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (15 April 2008). A Dictionary of Archaeology. Blackwell. pp. 125–126. ISBN 9780470751961. The [Bush Barrow] staff mounts resemble grave goods recovered from Mycenae - though there are also parallels in gold objects found in Brittany - and have provoked continuing debates as to whether the Wessex elite responsible for Bush Barrow were in some sort of contact with the Mycenaean culture of the Mediterranean.
  36. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN 978-1-84217-215-5. It is difficult to date the chevron-shaped bone or ivory mount from the Spanish coast near Alicante, because its find-circumstances have not been recorded. Brandherm (1996, 51) connects it with the northern province of the El Argar Culture. Its Mycenaean parallels come from Shaft Grave Iota, circle B, which contained pottery of Middle Helladic type and should mark the very beginning of the Shaft Grave series, presumably dating to the 17th century BC and probably slightly later than the comparable pieces from Bush Barrow with which they are traditionally connected.
  37. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN 978-1-84217-215-5. the Bush Barrow bone chevrons have third-millennium sheet-gold prototypes from Breton megalithic tombs.
  38. ^ Nicolas, Clément (December 2017). "Arrows of Power from Brittany to Denmark (2500–1700 BC)". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 83: 247–287. doi:10.1017/ppr.2017.5. S2CID 164263365.
  39. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN 978-1-84217-215-5. The traditional contact finds between Wessex and Mycenae, i.e. the gold-pin decoration of the Bush Barrow and Breton dagger hafts and the Bush Barrow zig-zag bone mounts of the earlier second millennium, all have their roots in the west, where some can be traced back to the Copper Age. Their appearance in the Mediterranean, however, cannot as yet be dated before the earliest Shaft Graves of Grave circle B of the end of the Middle Helladic Bronze Age and its transition to the Late, a period now assigned to the 17th century BC or earlier.
  40. ^ Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (15 April 2008). A Dictionary of Archaeology. Blackwell. pp. 125–126. ISBN 9780470751961. The [Bush Barrow] staff mounts resemble grave goods recovered from Mycenae - though there are also parallels in gold objects found in Brittany - and have provoked continuing debates as to whether the Wessex elite responsible for Bush Barrow were in some sort of contact with the Mycenaean culture of the Mediterranean.
  41. ^ Dickinson, O.T.P.K (1977). The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation. Coronet Books Inc. the bone mounts from Shaft Grave I, paralleled in bone from Bush Barrow in Wessex and in gold from the Kerlagat grave in Brittany, probably represent another object, perhaps a staff, imported from Europe, since they have no local antecedents.
  42. ^ Maran, Joseph (January 2013). "Bright as the sun: The appropriation of amber objects in Mycenaean Greece". In Hahn, Hans Peter; Weiss, Hadas (eds.). Mobility, Meaning and the Transformations of Things. Oxbow Books. pp. 147–169. ISBN 978-1-84217-525-5. In Greece, amber objects first make their appearance in the seventeenth or sixteenth centuries BCE at the very beginning of the Mycenaean period. ... the amber objects had not reached Greece from the Baltic, but, mostly as finished products, from the area of the Wessex culture of southern England. ... The transmission of amber objects from the Wessex culture to Greece during the LH I phase predates the earliest appearance of components of amber necklaces, including spacer plates, in graves of the Tumulus Burial culture.
  43. ^ de Vree, Christine (2021). "The Tholos Tombs of Kakovatos: Their Place in Early Mycenaean Greece". In Eder, Birgitta; Zavadil, Michaela (eds.). (Social) Place and Space in Early Mycenaean Greece. Austrian Academy of Sciences. pp. 85–106. doi:10.1553/978OEAW88544. ISBN 978-3-7001-8854-4. S2CID 236720096.
  44. ^ Whittaker, Helène (2017). "The North from the perspective of the Greek mainland in the Late Bronze Age". In Bergerbrant, Sophie; Wessman, Anna (eds.). New Perspectives on the Bronze Age. Archaeopress. pp. 395–402. ISBN 978-1-78491-598-8. Much, even if not all, of the amber that found its way to the Greek mainland in the early part of the Late Bronze Age seems to have been imported as finished necklaces of the crescentic or lunate type associated with the Early Bronze Age Wessex culture in south-central Britain. Rectangular spacer plates and trapezoid end pieces of the same type as those found in Britain have been found at Mycenae in the Argolid and at Pylos and Kakovatos in Messenia. ... The crescentic amber necklaces found in Britain are similar in shape to the gold collars known as lunulae and are believed to have had the same symbolic meaning..
  45. ^ Maran, Joseph (January 2013). "Bright as the sun: The appropriation of amber objects in Mycenaean Greece". In Hahn, Hans Peter; Weiss, Hadas (eds.). Mobility, Meaning and the Transformations of Things. Oxbow Books. pp. 147–169. ISBN 978-1-84217-525-5. while in the Early Bronze Age in the British Isles amber is by no means confined to elite tombs, special forms like crescentic amber necklaces with spacer plates and trapezoid end-pieces remain restricted to the richest Wessex burials. This exactly corresponds to the find situation of amber jewellery with spacer plates in the Early Mycenaean Peloponnese, thus emphasizing that in both regions such special amber objects were confined to the very small group of the most richly furnished burials.
  46. ^ Papadimitriou, Nikolas; Konstantinidi-Syvridi, Eleni; Goumas, Akis (2021). "A demanding gold-working technique attested in Armorican/Wessex and Early Mycenaean funerary contexts". Bulletin de l'Association pour la Promotion des Recherches sur l'Age du Bronze (APRAB). 19: 26–33. In this paper we examine a demanding gold-working technique, which was used for the decoration of prestigious weapons in two distant parts of Bronze Age Europe: a) EBA Armorique and Southern England (Wessex culture) and b) Mycenaean Greece.
  47. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN 978-1-84217-215-5. Over a hundred years ago Reinecke (1902b) compared the gold-pin inlay of the Bush Barrow and Breton dagger hilts with similarly decorated hafts from the Mycenaean Shaft Graves. ... the western hilts are still the best parallels for the Mycenaean examples. As demonstrated by Sakellariou (1984) gold-pin decoration is foreign to the Aegean prior the Shaft Grave period and its origin must, therefore, be sought in the Atlantic West.
  48. ^ "Mycenaean Gold-working and parallels in Brittany and Wessex: New Research (Online Lecture)". Wiltshire Museum. 2021.
  49. ^ Papadimitriou, Nikolas; Konstantinidi-Syvridi, Eleni; Goumas, Akis (2021). "A demanding gold-working technique attested in Armorican/Wessex and Early Mycenaean funerary contexts". Bulletin de l'Association pour la Promotion des Recherches sur l'Age du Bronze (APRAB). 19: 26–33.
  50. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2010). "Von Troja an die Saale, von Wessex nach Mykene – Chronologie, Fernverbindungen und Zinnrouten der Frühbronzezeit Mittel- und Westeuropas". In Meller, Harald; Bertemes, Francois (eds.). Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale). pp. 603–639. ISBN 978-3-939414-28-5. some forms from graves of the Wessex culture found their way into Mycenae, either as originals or copies. These pieces have no precedents or comparisons in the rest of the Mediterranean and must be attributed to Atlantic models or direct imports. The most convincing and also best known examples are the lunula-shaped amber collars from contexts of the Wessex culture and from the shaft graves … Further evidence of the radiation from Wessex to Mycenae is the similarity of the dagger or sword handles decorated with gold nails ... this singular technique has no antecedents in the Mediterranean, and its best parallels and precursors still come from Wessex and Brittany. Its chronology in Mycenae corresponds roughly to that of the amber necklaces discussed above … The bone zigzag fittings of a sceptre from Bush Barrow, also appear several times as a foreign form in Mycenae ... the origin of the zigzag-shaped Mycenaean fittings should also be sought in Atlantic Europe.(Translated from German)
  51. ^ Gerloff, Sabine (2010). "Von Troja an die Saale, von Wessex nach Mykene – Chronologie, Fernverbindungen und Zinnrouten der Frühbronzezeit Mittel- und Westeuropas". In Meller, Harald; Bertemes, Francois (eds.). Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale). pp. 603–639. ISBN 978-3-939414-28-5. This phase also includes the hoard of Nebra with its famous disc showing gold-plated heavenly bodies. Its plating technique is generally connected to Mycenaean metalwork. It will be shown, however, that this technique together with that of metal inlay had its origins in Britain, where it was already applied to organic material during the first phase of the Early Bronze Age, and flourished during the second and third phases when it was introduced on the continent and used on prestige metalwork.
  52. ^ Berger, Daniel (September 2013). "New insights into early bronze age damascene technique north of the alps". The Antiquaries Journal. 93: 25–53. doi:10.1017/S0003581513000012. S2CID 129042338. the prototypes of the Mycenaean daggers might be found further north, perhaps in the region of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary; indeed, it is possible to speculate even further, and look to northwestern or central Europe. The metal-inlaying traditions on EBA daggers in Brittany (especially Priziac) and southern Britain, along with a series of inlaid and plated objects on non-metallic bases, illustrate an early knowledge of material combination procedures for bi- or polychromatic purposes in this region reaching back to the nineteenth/eighteenth century BC. All things considered, it is possible to suggest that the damascene technique used on the Thun axe is based on indigenous metal-inlaying traditions that developed north of the Alps and that this axe could itself have served as the prototype for later damascened objects in other regions. Nor can we entirely exclude the possibility that the double-damascening technique originated here and found its way to south-eastern Europe, where it was brought to a high technical and artistic level in the Mycenaean period.
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