: Worship, Religion & Beliefs

The hoard of Bronze Age artefacts recovered by metal detectorists near Wrexham.

The bronze knife, found in two fragments. The edges of the blade were heavily notched, perhaps suggesting it had been used for some time before burial.

The bronze axe, the socket of which contained the fragments of two or more gold bracelets.

The fragments of bracelets, probably made from Irish gold.

In 2002 a number of Bronze Age items were discovered near Wrexham, North Wales. Amoung the finds were a bronze knife, an axe head, and four fragments of gold bracelets. All were made between 1000-800BC and show links between Wales and Ireland during the Bronze Age.

The knife is of a type used throughout southern England and Ireland, and its shape mirrors much larger swords that were in use at this time. However, it is the first of its kind to be found in Wales.

The bronze axe head has a socket at one end, to which a wooden handle would have been attached, as well as a loop through which leather or twine would have been threaded to keep them together. It appears, however, that the axe head was buried without its handle since four fragments of gold bracelets were found stuffed into the socket. These valued finds include two terminals (end pieces) of a bracelet type most commonly used in Ireland, and are probably made of Irish gold.

These artefacts would probably have belonged to a person of considerable social standing since few people at this time would have had access to Irish gold and such finely worked tools. Quite why their owner decided to part with them will never be known for certain, although it is likely that they were buried as an offering to the gods.

The discovery adds valuable detail to our understanding of life in Wales 3,000 years ago. A time when leaders dressed to impress by wearing gold bracelets and hair ornaments, and a person's role within society was broadcast by the tools and weapons worn, the appearance of the horse they rode and the quality of a feast hosted.

Though most people in Wales were settled farmers and herders at this time, finds like the hoard from Wrexham show us that these small communities were part of large trading networks that linked Wales with Ireland. Evidence that our ancestors had more on their minds than food, farming and survival.

These items form part of the collections of Wrexham County Borough Museum.

The Pen y Bonc necklace (Anglesey). Image © the Trustees of the British Museum.

Xero-radiograph of the Pen y Bonc necklace. Image © the Trustees of the British Museum.

Jet necklace from East Kinwhirrie, Angus (Scotland). Image: Helen Jackson for the National Museums of Scotland.

Gold lunula from Co. Kerry, Ireland. Image © Trustees of the British Museum.

Queen Victoria had a fascination with the black semi precious stone 'Jet' following the death of her husband, Prince Albert in 1861. The use of this stone has a much longer history as this 4,000 year old necklace from Anglesey shows.

Important burial

In 1828 a grave was discovered at Pen y Bonc, near Holyhead on Anglesey. Accounts of this discovery are incomplete, but the grave was dated to around 4,000 years. The person who was buried must have been important as the grave was cut into bare rock. A number of black beads and buttons were discovered in the grave.

Unfortunately, most of the items were lost soon after the discovery, but some surviving pieces are now in the collections of the British Museum. These pieces form a crescent-shaped necklace of beads and spacer plates. Objects such as these are usually found with female burials. Jet necklace from East Kinwhirrie, Angus (pictured) shows the shape of a complete spacer plate necklace, and illustrates how some of the finest examples were decorated.

A necklace made of coal

Most of the beads and plates in the Pen y Bonc necklace are made of 'lignite' (fossilised wood). However, one bead and the surviving button are made of jet, a material found 300km (186 miles) away to the north-east, at Whitby (North Yorkshire). Jet is a dense black variety of lignite only found in a few parts of Europe.

Only parts of this necklace survive. It is possible that this was all that was buried since Bronze Age jet necklaces are often found incomplete. Alternatively, parts of the necklace may have been made of materials which have since rotted away, or possibly pieces were lost when it was excavated.

Manufacturing jet necklaces was a skilled job. The many strands of the necklace were suspended using spacer plates through which holes were bored to carry the strings. This delicate work was probably carried out using a bow-drill and a piece of bronze wire. In the case of the Pen y Bonc necklace some of the holes have been bored lengthways through the plates. But in order to increase the number of strands on one side of the plate, holes have been drilled at one end to allow new strings to be tied in.

Unlike many types of gem, jet is warm to the touch and is relatively easy to shape; it also takes a very high polish. Today it looks rather like shiny plastic, but during the Bronze Age it must have appeared strange and unusual. Jet also has unusual electrostatic properties (when rubbed it can attract hair and other light materials) that might have been seen as magical in prehistoric Britain.

Treasured jewellery

The jet pieces in the Pen y Bonc necklace were heavily worn suggesting that they were treasured items that had been kept for many years. In contrast, the parts of the necklace that were made from local materials were less worn - suggesting that they were newer replacements for broken or damaged pieces of jet.

Objects made of jet were popular throughout Britain during the Early Bronze Age (2300-1500BC), however, after this period its use declined.

When the jet necklace from Pen y Bonc was discovered in the 19th century, the jet being mined at Whitby was just beginning a revival, thanks in large part to Queen Victoria's obsession with black mourning garments after the death of Prince Albert in 1861.

Gold Lunula

Gold lunula also date to the Early Bronze Age and are often decorated in a similar way to jet necklaces. However, whereas jet necklaces are usually found with burials, lunula are not found with the dead. Perhaps jet suggested death and gold represented life in the minds of people 4,000 years ago.

Background Reading

'The Welsh 'jet set' in prehistory' by Alison Sheridan and Mary Davis. In Prehistoric ritual and religion by Alex Gibson and Derek Simpson, p148-62. Sutton Publishing (1998).

'Investigating jet and jet-like artefacts from prehistoric Scotland: the National Museums of Scotland project' by Alison Sheridan and Mary Davis. In Antiquity (2002) vol. 26, p812-25.

The Naboth Vineyard Beaker, Llanharry (Rhondda Cynon Taff).

Discovery of the Beaker grave near Llanharry in 1929 (grave next to striped pole).

Another example of a Beaker, this time from a cist containing a female burial, discovered in 1991 in Llandaff (Cardiff). The burial was also accompanied by a bronze awl, an artefact commonly found with Beakers.

A new style of pottery appeared in Britain 4,000 years ago, but was it brought by invaders or did it evolve as a local fashion statement?

This finely decorated pot, known as a 'Beaker', was made about 4,000 years ago by an early community living in south Wales. At this time pots were handmade and fired in bonfires. It was found in September 1929 by workmen preparing a new road between Llanharan and Llanharry. This object is known as the "The Naboth Vineyard Beaker".

The Beaker had been placed in a stone-lined grave (or cist), beneath a circular mound of earth known as a barrow. The grave also contained a crouched skeleton of a man about 1.7m tall (5 foot 9 inches) and under 35 years old.

From this, and many other discoveries like it, it looks like these Beakers were very special pots, being placed beside someone when they were buried.

Their shape suggests that they were drinking vessels. They possibly containing offerings of alcohol to accompany people into the afterlife. In fact, when found, this beaker contained "slimy stuff" - could this have been the rotted remains of a funeral offering? - unfortunately, it was washed out before archaeologists could retrieve and analyse it.

This Beaker was made by rolling clay into long strips joined together at the ends to form rings that were smoothed to give the vessel shape. When the clay had dried a little, the vessel was polished (burnished) with a blunt tool, possibly of bone. Decoration was added with a toothed tool resulting in a distinctive pattern reminiscent of textile or worked leather. Finally, the Beaker was fired, giving it a rich, mottled, orange-brown colour.

Beaker pots and Beaker burials became common across much of Europe between 2800-2000BC. They are often found with daggers, flint arrowheads, and items of gold, amber, jet and bone.

In the past, it was believed that Beakers belonged to an innovative people, called the "Beaker Folk", who migrated around Europe and invaded Britain, bringing their artefacts with them.

Recently, an alternative theory has been put forward. This sees the Beaker phenomenon as a spread of common ideas or fashions across Europe, rather than a spread of people. The Beaker fashion was adopted by the people of Britain, as a result of contact and trade with Continental Europe.

In Wales, few early Beaker burials are known, and those that have been radiocarbon dated tend to be from 2300-1800BC. Beaker settlements are very rare.

Background Reading

"A Beaker-burial from Llanharry, Glamorgan" by V. E. Nash-Williams. In Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. 85, p402-5 (1930).

Guide catalogue of the Bronze Age collections by H. N. Savory. Published by National Museum of Wales (1980).

Prehistoric Wales by F. Lynch, S. Aldhouse-Green and J. L. Davies. Sutton Publishing (2000).

Llanllyfni lunula. Weighing 185.4g (6.5 ounces) and measuring 24cm (9.5 inches) in diameter. This crescent-shaped ornament probably originated as a single rod shaped ingot and was expertly hammered into shape. The intricate decoration of zig-zags, lines and dots was then added using a fine pointed tool and a copper or bronze punch. These designs are very similar to those used to adorn pottery made at this time.

Reconstruction of a lady wearing a gold lunula from Llanllyfni, (about 2000BC).
Gold was one of the first metals to be used in Wales, along with copper and alloys such as bronze. The use of gold for jewellery and ornamentation has been a common theme since the earliest times.

This stunning decorated object is one of the earliest gold artefacts to have been found in Wales and dates to the beginning of the Bronze Age (2400-2000BC).

Yellow leaf sticking from the ground

It was found a few miles from Llanllyfni (Gwynedd) on Llecheiddior-uchaf Farm near Dolbenmaen in about 1869. A farmer noticed what he took to be a yellow laurel leaf sticking out of some peat. Later, unsatisfied with this explanation, he returned to the site and uncovered the crescent-shaped object of gold.

The Llanllyfni lunula

Known as a 'lunula' after its crescent-shape (luna = moon in Latin), objects like this have been found in Scotland, Cornwall, and north-west France, with as many as 90 being discovered in Ireland.

Lunula are generally found in isolated locations, away from ancient settlements and, like the Llanllyfni example, they have often been discovered by chance.

It has been argued that they were intended to be worn around the neck as breast plates, although the lack of wear on the gold suggests that they were only rarely used - possibly they were the symbol of a priest or were used in the rituals of a community.

The gold in the Llanllyfni lunula may come from a Welsh source, for example the Dolgellau gold belt, or north-west of Llandovery, but as so many have been discovered in Ireland, the suspicion is that it was traded as a raw material across the Irish Sea.

Background Reading

'Bronze Age gold in Britain' by J. P. Northover. In Prehistoric gold in Europe by G. Morteani and J. P. Northover. Published by Kluwer (1993).

Bronze Age goldwork of the British Isles by J. J. Taylor. Cambridge University Press (1980).

'Objects mostly of prehistoric date discovered near Beddgelert and near Brynkir station' by W. J. Hemp. In Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2nd series, vol. 1, p166-83 (1918).

The Llandaff Beaker.

In 1992, renovations at a house in the Llandaf area of Cardiff uncovered an unusual stone slab buried by river sands and silts. Beneath the slab was a long bone and clay pot.

The pot turned out to be a beaker - a decorated clay vessel, fashionable in western Europe some 4,000 years ago, during what is known as 'the Beaker Period'. The beaker may originally have contained mead, beer or some other special brew. The stone slab marked the position of a grave.

With the cooperation and encouragement of the owners, the Department of Archaeology and Numismatics conducted an excavation in the driveway to their house, to re-expose the grave and fully excavate its contents. The enclosing cist, constructed of slabs of the local Radyr Stone, was unusual in that it was the form of a lean-to, its capstone resting at an angle of 30° contrasting with more conventional box-like, beaker cists.

Little of the skeleton remained. The expectation had been to find a crouched skeleton typical of the Beaker period, but only fragments of the cranium (the top of the skull) and limb bones survived. Additional grave-goods were unearthed, a bronze awl (a pointed tool for making holes, as in wood or leather) and a flint flake - objects that would have been buried alongside the person to be used in the 'next world'. Awls are usually associated with female burials.

Analysis of the sediment filling the grave may explain the unusual form of the cist and why only part of the skeleton was preserved. The presence of graded water-lain sediments within the grave suggests disturbance and erosion of the burial by flood water. Today the river Taff flows close by and property where the grave was discovered is built on the former floodplain of the river.