JEWELLERY

Gold basket-shaped ornament of Early Bronze Age date (c. 2500 BC - c. 2200 BC). Treasure case no. 2005 T113. Length 40mm, width 21.3mm, thickness of edges < 0.1mm, thickness at tang base c. 0.2mm. Weight 1.45g.

Description: This oval plaque of thin sheet gold is actually slightly asymmetrical in bowing more along one of the longer sides. In the centre of this side there is the residual stump of what would originally have been a narrow tang projecting radially outwards. Prior to the loss of the tang, therefore, the object was of a type known as a 'basket ornament', sometimes called earrings or tress rings. The plaque would have been curled into a tube and the tang then wrapped around it.

The tang evidently broke off in antiquity, or perhaps was neatly removed after irreparable damage. This removed the means for attachment to clothing or body and to solve the problem two tiny, neat perforations (0.5-0.7 mm diameter) were made in the edge of the plaque immediately behind the stump of the tang. They are pierced from the incised side of the plaque and the tiny lips on the reverse have not been flattened.

Linear decoration has been executed extremely lightly with a stylus. There is a band of three parallel grooves outlining the edge while two further bands cross the middle of the plaque on the shorter axis. These contain five and four grooves respectively and would have flanked either side of the tang in its original curled state.

The object has suffered considerable damage, aside from the loss of the tang, most of it probably in antiquity. A cross-grid of three strong creases is the result of the plaque having been folded up neatly into a smaller 'parcel' of gold; this is the condition in which it was found. There are localised tears along some of these now unfolded creases, in one case so extensive that one end of the plaque is only attached to the rest by a narrow stretch. In addition, the whole surface is buckled and creased.

Discussion: There is no doubt that in its original form the gold item was an ornament of the 'basket' type. This type is among the earliest gold-work in Britain, dating to the phase of copper usage prior to the adoption of bronze, circa 25th - 22nd centuries BC. Some are known in pairs and occur in early Beaker graves (for example that of the celebrated Amesbury Archer), but the folding of this example may suggest another context of deposition and recalls the as-found condition of the Stogursey basket ornament (Treasure Annual Report 1998-9, no. 1). The function of basket-shaped ornaments is unknown, but from their position in graves they may have been used as hair ornaments or ear-rings.