Bronze Age Gold from Wales
Middle Bronze Age gold pendant
This is a small necklace pendant, comprising two elements: a round gold bead attached to a biconical-shaped body. The body is formed of a circular-sectioned gold wire that has been spiralled into a tight coil and fused to form a hollow pendant with a hole at each end. The body narrows at each end, with a maximum diameter at the mid-section. On top of the pendant, a small hollow bead has been attached. This would have enabled the pendant to be threaded. There is wear on the bead and parts of the pendant indicating rubbing and abrasion during its use.
Gold necklace pendant, 1300-1150 BCE. Wales was at the heart of a tradition of gold-working in Atlantic Europe during the Middle Bronze Age. This gold necklace pendant was among objects found at Burton near the River Alun.
Project Title: Gold in Britain’s auriferous regions, 2450-800 BC: towards a coherent Research Framework and Strategy. Status: Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Network Grant funded project (2018-2019)
WA_SC 18.1
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Site Name: Burton, Wrexham
Notes: Hoard. A hoard of fourteen gold, bronze and ceramic objects were found while metal-detecting in January 2004 in a recently ploughed field in the flood plain of the River Alun at Burton, near Wrexham. Thirteen of these objects were found within a 1.5-2m square area, while a fourteenth was found 24m away. All objects were found 5-20cm below the ground. Subsequently a small archaeological test pit was excavated, which clarified the location of some of the objects. It is possible the objects were deposited within a small ceramic vessel, though only a sherd of this still survives. Two further gold objects were found while metal-detecting in August 2007 a few metres from the hoard findspot and were deemed to also be part of this hoard.
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