Cave finds show Bronze Age man was quite a smoothie
TONY HENDERSON reports on a new exhibition of Bronze Age artefacts, inluding finds from a County Durham cave
MEN who inhabited the North East in the Bronze Age at least 3,000 years ago apparently cared about their appearance.
A razor is among Bronze Age items from a cave in County Durham which are part of an exhibition at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.
The Heathery Burn cave hoard consisted of more than 200 objects which were excavated in the 19th century from the site in a ravine of the Stanhope Burn, near the source of the River Wear.
The cave objects have been loaned by The British Museum for the exhibition, titled Gathering light: A Bronze Age golden sun, which runs until Saturday.
Part of the British Museum’s Spotlight loans tour, the exhibition also includes other Bronze Age gold artefacts from different locations , from a gold lunula, or amulet, discovered in an Irish bog to a hoard of Cornish torcs – neck rings – and other rings.
The County Durham cave items on show include spearheads, a sword broken into three parts, a knife, an axe, a gold bracelet and what is thought to be a gold ring hair ornament.
Alex Croom, keeper of archaeology at Tyne Wear Museums, said: “The razor does say interesting things about appearance. They were not just using a knife, either, but a specially designed razor, so it was obviously important to them.”
It is believed that the cave, which had water running through it, was the location for offerings as it may have been perceived as the source of the power of the River Wear.
Other local objects on display are two swords dredged from the River Wear and beakers from Blaydon and Seahouses.
The exhibition also includes a 3,000-year-old sun pendant, known as a gold bulla, which is one of the most significant items of Bronze Age metalwork ever discovered in Britain and was found by a metal detectorist in Shropshire in May 2018. In Britain, the Bronze Age period lasted from around 2150BC until 800BC. Solar symbolism was a key element of mythology and belief during this period as the sun charted the day and provided life.
The exhibition reveals the importance of the sun to the lives of Bronze Age ancestors.
The sun pendant features an exceptionally rare depiction of the sun – not previously seen on objects found in Britain. It celebrates the life-giving power of the sun during the time of the earliest metalworkers.
The gold, crescent-shaped lunula, likely worn around the neck at least 4,000 years ago, is named because it resembles a ‘little moon’. It was discovered in a bog near Mangerton, Ireland in 1842.
Another gold bulla found in Ireland, dating between 1150–750BC and globular purse-shaped rather than half-moon shaped, is also on display.
The exhibition includes the loan of the Towednack hoard – a series of gold objects discovered in Cornwall in 1931 which included two torc necklaces, four arm rings and two pieces of unfinished gold material.
One of the torcs consists of three twisted bars of fine gold, delicately woven together. The bracelets would also have been commonplace and remain in different stages of completion, with two seemingly awaiting polishing and smoothing. The unfinished gold bars are bent, suggesting that they were raw material from a goldsmith intended to be a bracelet.
Neil Wilkin, curator, Early Europe at the British Museum, said: “The cave finds were among the hundreds of offerings made in the dramatic setting of Heathery Burn Cave, near the source of the River Wear, around 3,000 years ago.
“The 150m long cave, through which water flowed, may have been perceived as the source of the river’s power or even a way to communicate with supernatural forces. A remarkable range of objects were found during the 19th century along the full length of the cave.
“This included weapons and rare gold jewellery alongside objects used in feasts and ceremonies, and even the bands used to strengthen the hubs of spoked wheels of wagons, carts or chariots.
These represent some of the earliest evidence for wheeled vehicles in Britain.
“The Shropshire sun pendant is an internationally significant object, reflecting the artistic brilliance of communities from the deep past and the social and religious connections that spanned western Europe.”
Jo Cunningham, exhibitions, collections and archives manager at Sunderland Museum, said: “Sunderland and its surrounding area are rich in archaeological evidence left by people who lived here in the long distant past.
“The museum has many items found when a burial mound, was excavated at Hasting Hill in 1911.
“The finds include swords, tools, food vessel, urns and burial cists. Although there is nothing as spectacular as the Shropshire sun pendant, these beautiful objects, skilfully made by the people of Wearside, tell their own fascinating stories … and who knows what is yet to be discovered.”