The artefacts were part of a dagger buried with a warrior chief, near Stonehenge, nearly 4,000 years ago. Photo: PIN
Posted on 10/28/2008 8:13:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The pinhead-sized studs form an intricate pattern on the handle of a dagger, but archeologists failed to realise their significance when they excavated the burial mound in Wiltshire - known as Bush Barrow - in 1808.
Now they are to be re-united with other priceless artefacts unearthed at the site and put on show at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes after Niall Sharples, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University turned out his predecessors' desk and discovered them in a film canister labelled Bush Barrow.
In the 1960s, the gold was taken away for examination by Professor Richard Atkinson, a Cardiff University archaeologist well known for his work at Stonehenge and nearby Silbury Hill.
Wiltshire Heritage Museum director David Dawson said: "We think he recognized what they were but then he died and they were rescued by his successor Professor John Evans who put them in a drawer in his desk. Professor Evans died in 2005 and the gold studs have now been found by Niall Sharples, who is going to return them to us."
The gold pins, thought to come from Ireland, were fashioned by craftsmen in Brittany, France, and inlaid in an intricate herringbone pattern into the handle of the ceremonial dagger, which had an eight inch bronze blade.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The artefacts were part of a dagger buried with a warrior chief, near Stonehenge, nearly 4,000 years ago. Photo: PIN
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Must be a pretty old desk. |
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Yet another example of Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Nice piece. Unstated in the article, but circa 3000 BC you could literally “buy” a pretty decent goldsmith in Egypt for a few nice furs and some dope of some kind.
Some of the thousands of studs from the dagger. Each stud is thinner than a human hair. They were set into the wood at a density of over 1,000 per square centimeter to create a zig-zag pattern. [Wiltshire Museum, Devizes]
[Sound of rustling]
Oh, well. Got no gold daggers but I do have a bottle of Ibuprofen with a 2540 BC expiration date...
LOL!
We share housekeeping skills, I see.
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