The collection of pendants, beads and fossils were buried nearly 4,000 years ago alongside a woman, in an area now known as Wilsford G8 barrow. Discovered in the 19th century by William Cunnington, the pieces were made by highly skilled craftspeople who were experimenting with innovative techniques. The amber earrings are the earliest items found in Britain to show signs of being worked with a lathe.

Re-representing the past

The new additions to the display at Stonehenge have been presented differently to similar objects from nearby barrow Wilsford G7 which were previously on show. These beads and pendants were arranged in a necklace design, but there is no evidence that they were ever worn all together as one complete necklace.

English Heritage Curator Abigail Coppins explains the new arrangement:

'We have decided to change the design slightly for the new Wilsford G8 objects as many of the objects are larger and were probably worn as individual or paired items. We have chosen to move away from a necklace arrangement to a display that allows each object to be viewed as an individual piece or as paired and grouped objects.

'This arrangement is closer to how the objects are displayed at their home museum, Wiltshire Museum in Devizes where you can see many other stunning Bronze Age objects including the famous Bush Barrow gold lozenge.'

Can we ever know the meaning of these objects?

The ancient burial mounds that surround Stonehenge show how important the area was in the early Bronze Age. Between 2,400 and 1,600BC, people buried their dead in the round barrows, accompanied by extraordinarily rich grave goods. These are known to archaeologists as 'Wessex Culture' burials.

Many questions about the finds remain unanswered. We cannot be sure if the conical pieces were pendants or toggle buttons used to fasten a cloak. The amber and gold disks could have been earrings, or had some other use.

The most mysterious find is an oblong gold covered bone pendant. Scientists know that it is a piece of skull, but cannot yet tell if it is sheep or human. Either way, it was clearly a treasured object; encased in gold, worn in life and then buried with its owner.

English Heritage would like to thank Wiltshire Museum and Salisbury Museum for the generous loan of artefacts that form the permanent display at Stonehenge. English Heritage members have special discounted entry to both of these museums.

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