Images

Articles

Sun-disc from the dawn of history goes on display in Wiltshire for summer solstice

Stonehenge sun-disc from the dawn of history goes on display in Wiltshire for summer solstice

Wiltshire Museum will exhibit a gold ‘Stonehenge sun-disc’, which may have been worn on clothing or a head-dress
Marking this year’s summer solstice an early Bronze Age sun-disc, one of the earliest metal objects found in Britain, has gone on display for the first time at Wiltshire Museum.

Archaeologists believe the disc was forged in about 2,400 BC, soon after the great sarsen stones were put up at Stonehenge. It is thought it was worn on clothing to represent the sun.

The sun-disc, one of only six such finds, was discovered in a burial mound at Monkton Farleigh, just 20 miles from Stonehenge.

It was found during excavations by Guy Underwood in 1947 along with a pottery beaker, flint arrowheads and fragments of the skeleton of an aWe have the best Bronze Age collections in Britain and we are delighted to be able to display this incredibly rare sun-disk through the generosity of the donors,” said David Dawson, Museum Director.

Preserved by Dr Denis Whitehead since its discovery, the sun-disc was seen by the museum’s archaeologists the first time was when he brought it to the opening of the Prehistory Galleries in 2013.

It joins and unparallelled collection of Bronze Age treasures at the Museum dating to the time of Stonehenge and worn by people who worshiped inside the stone circle. Chief among them are the famous golden Bush Barrow treasures found in the Normanton Down Barrows less than a mile from Stonehenge.

The sun-disc is a thin embossed sheet of gold with a cross at the centre, surrounded by a circle. Between the lines of both the cross and the circle are fine dots which glint in sunlight.

Pierced by two holes, it is thought the disc, which is the size of a two pence piece and not much thicker than aluminium cooking foil, could have been sewn to a piece of clothing or a head-dress.

Until recently it had been presumed that early Bronze Age gold may have come from Ireland, but thanks to new scientific techniques developed at Southampton University evidence suggests the gold may have originated from Cornwall.

Presented to the museum in memory of Dr Whitehead, it has now been cleaned by the Wiltshire Council Conservation Service and placed on display in time for this year’s mid-summer solstice.

culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art529786-stonehenge-sun-disc-from-the-dawn-of-history-goes-on-display-in-wiltshire-for-summer-solstice

Jug’s Grave

Visited 27.8.12

Directions:
We came off the A363 and followed the signs for Ashley. We then went through a maze of lanes until we found the road which winds through Warleigh Wood. An O/S map is required.

Once we arrived at approximately the right place we just about managed to find a passing place to squeeze into. Parking is difficult along this minor road. I looked over the barbed wire fence into deep woodland and doubted I would be able to find the Cairn despite the O/S map showing it to be close to the road. I found a suitable place to hop over the fence (always a bit dodgy in shorts!) and roamed amongst trees.

I was about to give up and when I spotted it! It is not easy to find.
This much mangled Cairn is low and covered in ferns, brambles, several small trees and huge amounts of moss.

Despite this I liked the atmosphere of the place but would say this is one for the dedicated only given the difficulty in access / finding the Cairn.

Miscellaneous

Jug’s Grave
Cairn(s)

Details of Barrow on Pastscape

ST 79696305 – An oval-shaped bowl barrow, known as Jug’s Grave. It is 27 by 21 paces and 4 feet high. There are slight indications of a ditch on the south and west. Excavations by G. Underwood, 1946/7, revealed a primary interment of two skeletons in a stone cist accompanied by four EBA flint arrowheads, probable Beaker sherds, a gold ‘sun disc’ ornament and a fragment of bone ring. Four secondary inhumation-burials were found in the north part of the mound and other finds included a few flint flakes and scrapers and part of an hour-glass perforated stone mace. Three banks of the field system (ST 86 SW 1) impinge on the mound. Jug’s Grave at ST 79686305, is a cairn 1.4 metres high, extensively mutilated in the centre and N.W. where large quantities of stone have been removed. No indications of the ditch could be seen.

S.E. of Jug’s Grave at approximately ST.79796298, are two smaller cairns each 0.5 metres high. They may be field clearance heaps, but this seems unlikely as in the surrounding field system (ST 86 SW 1) the boundary banks are composed of stone and this would seem the obvious place to dispose of any surplus stone, nor are any other heaps of stone visible in the area. They may therefore be burial cairns. Both contain depressions in their centres where stone has been removed.
Sherds of a Bell Beaker from Jug’s Grave are in Bristol Museum, Acc. No. F. 3594, and the ‘sun-disc’ is in the posession of Capt. Whitehead, Inwoods, Farleigh Wick. Surveyed at 1/2500

Miscellaneous

Jug’s Grave
Cairn(s)

According volume 52 of the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine (1947/8) a golden ‘sun disc’ was found at Jug’s Grave. It was about 2 1/2cm in diameter and made from two pieces of gold foil beaten together. It was decorated with an equal-armed cross in the centre, each arm being made of six dots. The cross was enclosed by two circles, the space between the circles having 60 short marks. The marks were impressed from the front, while the crosses and circles were pressed in from the back of the foil. The magazine mentions that a similar disc was found at the fabulous Whitesheet Hill, Mere, by Colt Hoare (conveniently down the road from his house), and this had 80 rim dots. And then of course there was the more elaborate gold ‘sun disc’ found in a Lansdown barrow.

Sites within 20km of Jug’s Grave