Later Bronze Age Ornaments

Bronze Age ornaments form a major category of metal artefact. Those made of
gold are some of the most captivating prehistoric objects known to us. They are
probably the most personal objects surviving as they were worn on the body and,
as is still true today, were a daily and ever-present signaller of identity, status
and an individuals personality.
The term ornament is rather cumbersome and old fashioned, but by this we
essentially mean jewellery. This includes rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings,
objects worn in the hair, dress pins and other types of clothes fasteners. As the
ornament data from the Bronze Age Index is about to be put on the MircoPasts
website, we thought it would be useful to give a quick introduction to this object
category.
Most Bronze Age ornaments are often believed to date within the Middle Bronze
Age, c. 1400-1150 BC. This was even known as the Ornament Horizon, although
now other terms are preferred (See Later Prehistoric Britain blog by Neil Wilkin
and Jennifer Wexler, below). Generally speaking, Middle Bronze Age bronze
objects date to the Taunton period (1400-1250 BC), whereas Middle Bronze Age
gold dates slightly later to the Penard phase (1300-1140 BC). There are only a
small number of ornaments dated to the next 200 years, although we should
assume that they were still used. The last 150 years of the Bronze Age (950-800
BC) saw a huge increase in ornament deposition.
Recent and ongoing work by Ben Roberts (2007; forthcoming) on Middle Bronze
Age ornaments has done much to enhance our understanding of these objects.
His work with colleagues at the British Museum also includes information and
fantastic pictures of all European Bronze Age gold objects in the museum,
available online at
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_research_catalogues/bag/bronze_
age_gold.aspx
Scrolling through these images provides a breathtaking insight into what some
people were wearing in the Bronze Age, and the technical ability of Bronze Age
smiths.
Middle Bronze Age ornaments are often large and would have been awkward to
wear. This includes the Sussex Loop bracelets and Quoit Headed pins, whose
circular head could reach 15cm in diameter. Other dress pins are over 30cm in
length. Clearly in the Middle Bronze Age people suffered for their fashion!

Middle Bronze Age ornaments from East Dean, Peadown hoard, Sussex.
The middle pin is 30cm long. The object on the top right is a Sussex Loop
bracelet.

Middle Bronze Age gold from the Crow Down hoard, West Berkshire.

I have recently undertaken work on Late Bronze Age ornaments. This was for my
Masters thesis at Cardiff University. A focus of this was on bracelets, and I have
created a new typology that has shown some interesting regional patterns. I
have also complied a catalogue of all known Late Bronze Age ornaments, and
analysed patterns in the information.
This has firstly demonstrated that there are many more ornaments dating to this
period than is usually appreciated. So far at least 1100 objects date to c.1150600 BC, of which c.770 belong to the Ewart Park phase of c.950-800 BC. This
primarily includes objects made from gold and bronze, but also amber, jet and
shale.
These objects are not as large and ostentatious as those in the Middle Bronze
Age. They are dominated by a range of pins and bracelets, but there are also
more unusual objects made from gold that we dont know exactly how they were
used. This includes small lock-rings and penannular rings. These usually have
a gap in their circumference, so I like to think they were worn as earrings after a
pierced ear has been stretched to allow for their width. However, not all have
these gaps, so there is still debate as to their use. Another idea is that they were
used to help tie up clothing or hair. Other unusual gold objects include so-called
dress fasteners and sleeve fasteners. These are primarily found in Ireland, but
do also appear in Britain. These are both of a very similar form to some bracelets
dating to the same period. There seems to be a continuum in the size of these
types of objects, with each type merging into the other. As these objects are
almost always found as single finds or in hoards, context is not very helpful in
understanding how they were used. The only find that is vaguely useful are the
two gold penannular rings found with a cremation at Mucking North Ring, Essex
(Bond 1988, 14). If anyone has ideas as to how these objects may have been
used, please leave a comment!

Sleeve fastener from Ireland

Gold
bracelet
Cornwall

from

Morvah,

Dress fastener from Islay, Argyll and Bute

Lock- ring from Cheesburn Grange, Northumberland

Gaerwen, Anglesey

Penannular ring from Bradwell, Essex

Lock-ring

from

One of the observations that came up in my research is that there are certain
patterns in ornament deposition. Firstly, single ornaments very rarely occur alone
in hoards. There are also no hoards that contain non-metal ornaments amber,
shale and jet that do not also contain metallic ornaments. Bracelets also seem
to occur only in even numbers or pairs in English hoards. The significance of this
pairing is heightened by the few burials we have associated with bracelets. Of
the four burials that are accompanied by bracelets, three of these consist of
pairs.
Pins are also subject to depositional planning. Although they are occasionally
found in hoards, they generally seem to be systematically excluded from these
contexts. In fact, they are the only type of object that are more common on
settlements than in hoards, and are the only metal object that you might
realistically expect to find during the excavation of a Late Bronze Age settlement.
Most of these do seem to be genuine accidental loses on settlements. This
suggests that some single finds may in fact come from settlements waiting to be
excavated!
All this evidence helps to demonstrate that the metalwork corpus that we have is
highly selective. We should not assume that it is representational of the range or
quantity of material actually present in the Bronze Age. By in large, the content
of each hoard reflects only a part of the specific cultural circumstances that led
to its deposition; objects that were not deemed relevant to depositional activities
could be indefinitely remelted and recycled and never enter the archaeological
record. Due to this, we should not exclude the possibility that some bronze
present in modern objects was originally smelted and circulated in the Bronze
Age!
A large number of objects, especially those of gold, have only recently come to
light as part of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (www.finds.org; Murgia and
Roberts forthcoming). This has only been possible due to the excellent
collaboration that is happening between members of the public, especially metal
dectectorists, and archaeologists. Input from the public like this is driving
research forward. My catalogue has yet to include the objects in the Bronze Age
Index, and no doubt the work undertaken by MicroPasts volunteers to digitalise
this resource will enhance our understanding of Bronze Age jewellery. Thankyou,
and I look forward to seeing the results!
Alex Davies
Cardiff University

References
Bond, D. 1988. Excavation at the North Ring, Mucking, Essex: a Late
Bronze Age enclosure. Chelmsford: East Anglian Archaeology 43.

Murgia, A. and Roberts, B. W. forthcoming. What have metal-detectorists ever

done for us? Discovering Bronze Age Gold in England and Wales. Archeologische
Korrespondenzblatt
Roberts, B. W. 2007. Adorning the Living but Not the Dead: Understanding
Ornaments in Britain c.1400-1100 cal BC. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
73. 137-67.