Materials in movement: gold and stone in process in the Upton Lovell G2a burial

• Autores: Rachel J. Crellin, Christina Tsoraki, Christopher D. Standish, Richard B. Pearce, Huw Barton, Sarah Morriss, Oliver J.T. Harris
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 97, Nº 391, 2023, págs. 86-103
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Excavated over two centuries ago, the Upton Lovell G2a ‘Wessex Culture’ burial has held a prominent place in research on Bronze Age Britain. In particular, was it the grave of a ‘shaman’ or a metalworker? We take a new approach to the grave goods, employing microwear analysis and scanning electron microscopy to map a history of interactions between people and materials, identifying evidence for the presence of Bronze Age gold on five artefacts, four for the first time. Advancing a new materialist approach, we identify a goldworking toolkit, linking gold, stone and copper objects within a chaîne opératoire, concluding that modern categorisations of these materials miss much of their complexity.