Bronze Age Gold Research Articles

A Bronze Age gold torc from Sudbrook, Lincs.

An important find of a Bronze Age gold bar‐torc from Sudbrook, Lincs. is described. Study of its closer parallels suggests that it belongs to a sub‐group of the much larger family of bar‐torcs known from Britain, Ireland and France during the Middle to later Bronze Age.

Recent Finds of Late Bronze Age Gold from South Wales

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A hoard of Late Bronze Age gold objects from Heights of Brae, Ross & Cromarty District, Highland Region

Three cup-ended ornaments, five penannular armlets, and a corrugated band; 8th-7th century. This is Scotland's largest surviving LBA gold hoard.

An Eighteenth-Century Find of Four Late Bronze Age Gold Discs near Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland

An Eighteenth-Century Find of Four Late Bronze Age Gold Discs near Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland

Lunulae Reconsidered

Lunulae are commonly considered to be Early Bronze Age gold sheet collars produced solely in Ireland in imitation of jet and amber spacer-plate necklaces found elsewhere in the British Isles. Decorated with a distinctive style of incised geometric designs, they are more carefully and intricately ornamented than Beaker gold sheet-work, but less sophisticated than the superior Wessex gold objects. The term lunula has come to distinguish the Early Bronze Age gold crescent collar from the term Halskragen, a probably distantly-related type of copper crescent collar found in north-west Germany.

Early Bronze Age Gold Neck-Rings in Western Europe

Some objects defy archaeologists to understand their function. Two gold rod-like fragments from the Kerivoa hoard, Côtes-du-Nord, and one from Plouarzel, Finistère (Briard, 1965, fig. 21, 2), are the only gold objects on the Continent with broadened terminals similar to the ‘neck-ring’ from Arlon, Belgium. Three similar rings in copper exist in Britain. These six objects, their function, and their relationship to other prehistoric objects, form the nucleus of this article.The two Kerivoa fragments (pl. XVI, B), with rod-like body and broadened ends, fit together to form a complete object like that from Arlon. They were a part of the Kerivoa hoard which also contained three gold lunulae with a fragment of sheet gold broken into four pieces. These were found near Bourbriac, Côte-du-Nord, France, in 1932, surrounded by a dark mass, which has been interpreted as a disintegrated wooden box. The fragments with broadened terminals and their association with lunulae are critical to this paper.

Bronze Age Gold Ornaments found in Arran and Wigtownshire, with Suggestions as to their Method of Use

The ornaments include a fine, hollow, penannular ring and a larger possible bracelet. There were also found about two dozen fragments of pottery characteristic of a late phase of the Bronze Period, and belonging to two vessels. The penannular object is of a type usually considered to be worn as an earring though it is argued here that it is more likely to have been worn as a hair ornament. The larger object has been made by bending into oval shape a solid gold rod, somewhat thickened in the middle of its length, and by bringing the ends nearly together. To either end has been most skilfully melted on or sweated a calyx or trumpet-shaped piece. This is also interpreted as a hair ornament.