Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T23:59:29.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Metalworker or shaman: Early Bronze Age Upton Lovell G2a burial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Colin A. Shell*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, England. cas4@cam.ac.uk

Extract

The Early Bronze Age barrow, Upton Lovell GZa,on Upton Lovell Down near the south westernedge of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, was one ofthe first to be investigated by William Cunnington(Cunnington 1806). His excavation in May 1802revealed an extended primary inhumation of astout male, accompanied near the feet by a largenumber of perforated bone points, three flint axesand a number of stones. These included fragmentsof a broken stone battle axe. At the chest was acomplete stone battle axe and a circular stone withbevelled edges and polished surface. Also foundwere a jet or lignite ring and biconicai beads, anda small bronze awl. The grave was listed by Piggott(1938: grave 82) as one of the burials defining hisWessex Culture.

Type
News and notes
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Coles, J.M. & Taylor, J.J. 1971. The Wessex culture: a minimal view, Antiquity 45: 614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunnington, W. 1806. Account of tumuli opened in Wiltshire, Archaeologia 15: 1229, plates 25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piggott, S. 1938. The Early Bronze Age in Wessex, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 4: 52106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piggott, S. 1962. From Salisbury Plain to Siberia, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 58: 937.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1973. The later Neolithic: single graves and the first metallurgy & The Wessex Culture of the Early Bronze Age, in Crittall, E. [ed.], A history of Wiltshire 1(2): 33375. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thurnam, J. 1870. On ancient British barrows, especially those of Wiltshire and the adjoining counties (Part II. round barrows), Archaeologia 43: 285544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar