Bronze Age Gold from Wales
Late Bronze Age gold foil
This is a small and creased fragment of gold foil discovered during an archaeological excavation at Llanmaes. The foil is folded over in half and has jagged tear edges on three sides. The Bronze Age obect that this once decorated cannot now be identified with certainty. During the Late Bronze Age, gold foil was used to cover bronze or non-metal cores of penannular rings, small items of jewellery adorning the hair, ears or nose. It is possible that this foil once decorated such a ring.
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)
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Site Name: Llanmaes, Llantwit Major
Notes: Settlement assemblage. A gold foil fragment was found during an archaeological excavation of a Bronze Age-Iron Age settlement at Llanmaes. The object was found in Trench J, located to the north-north-east of the central settlement, on top of a metalled, stone surface within a hollow in the bedrock. 31 fragments of prehistoric pottery were also found on this surface, which could be broadly dated to the Middle Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC). A copper alloy pin was also found, which can be dated to the Middle-Late Bronze Age (1300-800 BC). Dating this object poses some difficulties, but the associated material indicates a later Bronze Age date, spanning 1300-800 BC. Other Bronze Age goldwork was recovered from the site, dating to the Middle Bronze Age.