Bush Barrow contents on display at the World of Stonehenge exhibition in the British Museum.[1]
Bush Barrow lies around 1 kilometre southwest of Stonehenge on Normanton Down. It forms part of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery.[2] The surviving earthworks have an overall diameter of 49 metres (161 ft) and comprise a large mound, with breaks in the slope suggesting three phases of development.[2] The barrow currently stands 3.3 metres high and its summit measures 10.5 metres in diameter.[2]
The barrow is one of the "associated sites" in the World Heritage Site covering Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (Cultural, ID 373, 1986).[3] The Normanton Down round barrow cemetery comprises some 40 barrows strung out along an east-west aligned ridge. Bush Barrow (so named by Cunnington because it had bushes on it) is towards the western end of the line of barrows, sited at the highest point of the ridge.[4]
Contents
Hexagon geometry was employed in both lozenge forms. Note the lozenges are not to relative scale. After Johnson 2008.[5]
The barrow was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare.[2] It contained a male skeleton with a collection of funerary goods that make it "the richest and most significant example of a Bronze Age burial monument not only in the Normanton Group or in association with Stonehenge, but arguably in the whole of Britain".[4] The items date the burial to the early Bronze Age, circa 1900 BC, and include a large 'lozenge'-shaped sheet of gold, a sheet gold belt plate, three bronze daggers, a bronze axe, a stone macehead and bronze rivets, all held by the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.[6]
Bush Barrow lozenge
Design, angles and alignments of the Bush Barrow lozenge[7]
The design of the artifact known as the Bush Barrow lozenge, and the smaller lozenge, has been shown to be based on a hexagon construction. Both the shape and the decorative panels appear to have been created by repeating hexagons within a series of three concentric circles, each framing the series of smaller decorative panels.[8] The precision and accuracy displayed by the work demonstrates both a sophisticated tool kit and a sound knowledge of geometric form. A similar gold lozenge from Clandon Barrow, in Dorset, used a decagon in its design.[9][10]
The design of the Bush Barrow lozenge also suggests that it has an astronomical meaning. The acute angles of the lozenge (81°) are equal to the angle between the midsummer and midwinter solstices at the latitude of Stonehenge.[11][12] When the sides of the Bush Barrow lozenge are aligned with the solstices, the long axis of the lozenge also points to the equinox sunrise.[11] According to David Dawson, director of the Wiltshire Museum, the design and precision of the Bush Barrow lozenge shows that its makers "understood astronomy, geometry and mathematics, 4,000 years ago."[13][14]
According to the archaeologist Sabine Gerloff, the lozenge design indicates "a continuation of some Megalithic traditions, beliefs and cult practices into the Early Bronze Age".[15] Lozenges are also depicted on the Folkton Drums,[16] which are thought to represent measuring devices used in the construction Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments.[17][18]
Daggers
Two of the bronze daggers have the largest blades of any from their period, whilst a third had a 30 centimetres (12 in) long wooden hilt originally decorated with up to 140,000 tiny gold studs forming a herringbone pattern. The studs are around 0.2 millimetres (0.0079 in) wide and 1 millimetre (0.039 in) in length with over a thousand studs embedded in each square centimetre.[19][20]
David Dawson has stated that: "The gold studs are remarkable evidence of the skill and craftsmanship of Bronze Age goldsmiths – quite rightly described as 'the work of the gods'".[21] Optician Ronald Rabbetts has said that "Only children and teenagers, and those adults who had become myopic naturally or due to the nature of their work as children, would have been able to create and manufacture such tiny objects."[19]
Scientific analyses indicate that the gold originated from Cornwall.[22] This was also the source of gold used to make the Nebra sky disc and Irish gold lunulae.[23][24] The dagger may have been made in either Britain or Brittany (Armorica), where similar examples of gold-stud decoration are known.[25] Gold-stud decoration was also used on the amber pommel of a dagger from Hammeldon Down Barrow in Devon, dating from the Wessex II period.[26]
The hilt of the Bush Barrow dagger lay forgotten for over 40 years from the 1960s, having been sent to Professor Atkinson at Cardiff University, and was found by one of his successors in 2005.[21]
Antique knife
Some bronze rivets and other bronze fragments have been identified as the remains of a knife dating from about 2400 BC, suggesting that the Bush Barrow chieftain may have belonged to a "noble dynasty" dating back to the time of Stonehenge's construction.[13]
Stone mace
An unusual stone mace head lay to the right of the Bush Barrow skeleton, made out of a rare fossilized stromatoporoid (sea sponge), originating in Devon or Cornwall. It had a wooden handle, from which decorative zig-zag-shaped bone mounts survive. The mace is considered to be a symbol of power or authority.[27] Similar bone mounts have been found in Grave Circle B at Mycenae in Greece,[28][6] at Illeta dels Banyets in Spain (associated with the Argaric culture),[29] and in gold at Carnac in Brittany (associated with the Bell Beaker culture).[30][31]
Various authors have suggested a connection between the bone mounts in Britain and those in Greece, where they appear without local antecedents.[32][28][33] This is supported by the finding of amber necklaces from Britain in the elite shaft graves at Mycenae (Grave circles A and B).[34][35][36] According to the archaeologist Joseph Maran, "In Greece, amber objects first make their appearance in the seventeenth or sixteenth centuries BCE at the very beginning of the Mycenaean period. ... the amber objects had not reached Greece from the Baltic, but, mostly as finished products, from the area of the Wessex culture of southern England. ... There is an amazing similarity between the shaft grave period and the Wessex culture not only in the amber items as such and their close association with gold, but also in the social contexts of the appearance of amber jewellery … in both regions such special amber objects were confined to the very small group of the most richly furnished burials.”[37]
Close similarities have also been noted between the gold-stud decoration of the Bush Barrow dagger and the decoration of elite weapons in Mycenaean Greece.[38][39] The gold-stud technique is exclusively attested in Britain, Armorica and Greece, with the oldest examples coming from Britain and Armorica. In Greece this technique, known as 'gold embroidery', first appears in the shaft graves at Mycenae.[40] According to the archaeologist Nikolas Papadimitriou, "Mycenaean gold embroidery first occurred in the same context as two other types of artefacts that are considered indicative of northern European links: amber spacer-plates with complex boring and weapons with in‐laid decoration."[38] Sabine Gerloff argues that the gold-stud technique originated in Britain and was transferred to Greece, along with amber necklaces and zig-zag and lozenge-shaped decorative elements, including the bone mounts from Mycenae.[41]
Boundary of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, with the location of Bush Barrow
It is not known why this barrow contained such rich grave goods compared to those around it. It occupies the highest point, but is not the tallest barrow, and is not obviously marked out as the principal barrow in the cemetery. Nonetheless, several other barrows within the Normanton Group contain similarly rich grave goods associated with primary interments, also of a similar age.[4]
^Johnson, Anthony, Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma pp 182–185 (Thames & Hudson, 2008) ISBN978-0-500-05155-9
^Johnson, Anthony (2008). Solving Stonehenge. Thames and Hudson. pp. 181–269. ISBN9780500051559. The Bush Barrow lozenge shows that from the time of the construction of the first truly circular earthworks, ideas had progressed far beyond the geometry of circles to the understanding of the radii to create hexagons, the subdivision of angles, the setting out of accurate right angles and the investigation of other geometric forms including decagons and pentagons. … The sophisticated geometric design of the Bush Barrow lozenge can hardly have been a spontaneous product; the confidence of its execution proclaims it to be an evolved work based on long-established and well-practised procedures. (p.181-182) ... Both the Bush Barrow lozenges were based on hexagonal geometry. … The design of the Clandon Barrow lozenge is based on the ingenious use of a 10-sided polygon (decagon) which was then used to control the proportion and spacing of its concentric design (p.260-269)
^Garrow, Duncan; Wilkin, Neil (June 2022). The World of Stonehenge. British Museum Press. p. 187. ISBN9780714123493. The similarities [of the Clandon Barrow] with Bush Barrow in terms of content are remarkable: both mounds produced gold diamond-shaped plaques, both contained similar weapons, and both held extremely rare maces made from a range of exotic materials. The location of Clandon, close to the ancient ceremonial centre of Mount Pleasant, is also comparable to the privileged position of Bush Barrow near to Stonehenge.
^Woodward, Ann; Hunter, John (2015). Ritual in Early Bronze Age Grave Goods. Oxbow Books. p. 238. ISBN9781782976974. it is an intriguing coincidence that the acute angles of the lozenge groove-bands are approximately 81°, which is effectively the difference between the two solstice alignments in the Stonehenge area.
^ abStonehenge's Richest Man: The Bush Barrow Chieftain (British Museum 2022). The point at the top and the bottom [of the Bush Barrow gold lozenge] has a very precise angle of 81 degrees. That's the same angle between where the sun rises at midwinter and midsummer solstices, so it has an astronomical importance. And the very finely detailed embossed decoration, particularly around the outer border, is laid out to a tolerance of less than half a millimetre. What that tells us is they understood astronomy, geometry and mathematics, 4,000 years ago.
^"Bush Barrow Lozenge". Wiltshire Museum. The carefully laid out design of the lozenge shows a detailed knowledge of geometry. The sharpest angle is similar to that between the summer and winter solstice.
^Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN978-1-84217-215-5. Megalithic-style linear motifs – including chevrons and lozenges – reappeared in the earliest Bronze Age, when they are found on British long-necked beakers from single burials and are also characteristic of the most prestigious metalwork, namely Irish gold lunulae. These motifs – or better 'symbols' – continued into the time of the Wessex Culture, when they made their appearance in the shape and decoration of the prestigious Bush Barrow and Clandon breastplates and the gold-nail inlay of the Bush Barrow hilt and its associated bone mounts. … The survival of these motifs or symbols associated with burials, rituals and elites must indicate a continuation of some Megalithic traditions, beliefs and cult practices into the Early Bronze Age.
^Grigsby, John (2018). Skyscapes, Landscapes, and the Drama of Proto-Indo-European Myth (PhD). Bournemouth University. p. 202. lozenges are the mainstay of Neolithic art in Britain – from the forms found on Grooved ware artwork, synonymous with the henges, to the later Bush Barrow lozenge – but also common on megalithic petroglyphs and artefacts such as the Folkton drums.
^Teather, Anne; Chamberlain, Andrew; Parker Pearson, Mike (2018). "The chalk drums from Folkton and Lavant: Measuring devices from the time of Stonehenge". British Journal for the History of Mathematics. 34 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1080/17498430.2018.1555927. S2CID189372696. we propose that there is a direct link between the design of the monument of Stonehenge and the chalk artefacts known as the Folkton and Lavant Drums, in which the Drums represent measurement standards that were essential for accurate and reproducible monument construction. ... The diameters, and hence the circumferences, of these four drums form a mathematical harmonic sequence
^UCL (21 December 2018). "Folkton Drums could have been measuring devices used to build Stonehenge". UCL News. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2019. The existence of these measuring devices implies an advanced knowledge in prehistoric Britain of geometry and of the mathematical properties of circles.
^ abShaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (15 April 2008). A Dictionary of Archaeology. Blackwell. pp. 125–126. ISBN9780470751961. The [Bush Barrow] staff mounts resemble grave goods recovered from Mycenae - though there are also parallels in gold objects found in Brittany - and have provoked continuing debates as to whether the Wessex elite responsible for Bush Barrow were in some sort of contact with the Mycenaean culture of the Mediterranean.
^Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN978-1-84217-215-5. It is difficult to date the chevron-shaped bone or ivory mount from the Spanish coast near Alicante, because its find-circumstances have not been recorded. Brandherm (1996, 51) connects it with the northern province of the El Argar Culture. Its Mycenaean parallels come from Shaft Grave Iota, circle B, which contained pottery of Middle Helladic type and should mark the very beginning of the Shaft Grave series, presumably dating to the 17th century BC and probably slightly later than the comparable pieces from Bush Barrow with which they are traditionally connected.
^Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN978-1-84217-215-5. the Bush Barrow bone chevrons have third-millennium sheet-gold prototypes from Breton megalithic tombs.
^Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN978-1-84217-215-5. The traditional contact finds between Wessex and Mycenae, i.e. the gold-pin decoration of the Bush Barrow and Breton dagger hafts and the Bush Barrow zig-zag bone mounts of the earlier second millennium, all have their roots in the west, where some can be traced back to the Copper Age. Their appearance in the Mediterranean, however, cannot as yet be dated before the earliest Shaft Graves of Grave circle B of the end of the Middle Helladic Bronze Age and its transition to the Late, a period now assigned to the 17th century BC or earlier.
^Dickinson, O.T.P.K (1977). The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation. Coronet Books Inc. the bone mounts from Shaft Grave I, paralleled in bone from Bush Barrow in Wessex and in gold from the Kerlagat grave in Brittany, probably represent another object, perhaps a staff, imported from Europe, since they have no local antecedents.
^Maran, Joseph (January 2013). "Bright as the sun: The appropriation of amber objects in Mycenaean Greece". In Hahn, Hans Peter; Weiss, Hadas (eds.). Mobility, Meaning and the Transformations of Things. Oxbow Books. pp. 147–169. ISBN978-1-84217-525-5. In Greece, amber objects first make their appearance in the seventeenth or sixteenth centuries BCE at the very beginning of the Mycenaean period. ... the amber objects had not reached Greece from the Baltic, but, mostly as finished products, from the area of the Wessex culture of southern England. ... The transmission of amber objects from the Wessex culture to Greece during the LH I phase predates the earliest appearance of components of amber necklaces, including spacer plates, in graves of the Tumulus Burial culture.
^Whittaker, Helène (2017). "The North from the perspective of the Greek mainland in the Late Bronze Age". In Bergerbrant, Sophie; Wessman, Anna (eds.). New Perspectives on the Bronze Age. Archaeopress. pp. 395–402. ISBN978-1-78491-598-8. Much, even if not all, of the amber that found its way to the Greek mainland in the early part of the Late Bronze Age seems to have been imported as finished necklaces of the crescentic or lunate type associated with the Early Bronze Age Wessex culture in south-central Britain. Rectangular spacer plates and trapezoid end pieces of the same type as those found in Britain have been found at Mycenae in the Argolid and at Pylos and Kakovatos in Messenia. ... The crescentic amber necklaces found in Britain are similar in shape to the gold collars known as lunulae and are believed to have had the same symbolic meaning..
^Maran, Joseph (January 2013). "Bright as the sun: The appropriation of amber objects in Mycenaean Greece". In Hahn, Hans Peter; Weiss, Hadas (eds.). Mobility, Meaning and the Transformations of Things. Oxbow Books. pp. 147–169. ISBN978-1-84217-525-5. while in the Early Bronze Age in the British Isles amber is by no means confined to elite tombs, special forms like crescentic amber necklaces with spacer plates and trapezoid end-pieces remain restricted to the richest Wessex burials. This exactly corresponds to the find situation of amber jewellery with spacer plates in the Early Mycenaean Peloponnese, thus emphasizing that in both regions such special amber objects were confined to the very small group of the most richly furnished burials.
^ abPapadimitriou, Nikolas; Konstantinidi-Syvridi, Eleni; Goumas, Akis (2021). "A demanding gold-working technique attested in Armorican/Wessex and Early Mycenaean funerary contexts". Bulletin de l'Association pour la Promotion des Recherches sur l'Age du Bronze (APRAB). 19: 26–33. In this paper we examine a demanding gold-working technique, which was used for the decoration of prestigious weapons in two distant parts of Bronze Age Europe: a) EBA Armorique and Southern England (Wessex culture) and b) Mycenaean Greece.
^Gerloff, Sabine (2007). "Reinecke's ABC and the Chronology of the British Bronze Age". In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances (eds.). Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. Oxbow Books. pp. 117–161. ISBN978-1-84217-215-5. Over a hundred years ago Reinecke (1902b) compared the gold-pin inlay of the Bush Barrow and Breton dagger hilts with similarly decorated hafts from the Mycenaean Shaft Graves. ... the western hilts are still the best parallels for the Mycenaean examples. As demonstrated by Sakellariou (1984) gold-pin decoration is foreign to the Aegean prior the Shaft Grave period and its origin must, therefore, be sought in the Atlantic West.
^Gerloff, Sabine (2010). "Von Troja an die Saale, von Wessex nach Mykene – Chronologie, Fernverbindungen und Zinnrouten der Frühbronzezeit Mittel- und Westeuropas". In Meller, Harald; Bertemes, Francois (eds.). Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale). pp. 603–639. ISBN978-3-939414-28-5. some forms from graves of the Wessex culture found their way into Mycenae, either as originals or copies. These pieces have no precedents or comparisons in the rest of the Mediterranean and must be attributed to Atlantic models or direct imports. The most convincing and also best known examples are the lunula-shaped amber collars from contexts of the Wessex culture and from the shaft graves … Further evidence of the radiation from Wessex to Mycenae is the similarity of the dagger or sword handles decorated with gold nails ... this singular technique has no antecedents in the Mediterranean, and its best parallels and precursors still come from Wessex and Brittany. Its chronology in Mycenae corresponds roughly to that of the amber necklaces discussed above … The bone zigzag fittings of a sceptre from Bush Barrow, also appear several times as a foreign form in Mycenae ... the origin of the zigzag-shaped Mycenaean fittings should also be sought in Atlantic Europe.(Translated from German)
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