accessory cup

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Object Type
Museum number: 1879,1209.1818
Description: Accessory vessel; pottery; Aldbourne cup and lid; incised decoration, cup decorated internally with a row of reserved lozenges split and enclosed by single lines, the triangles filled with pointillé (some pricks piercing wall); on lower body, similar scheme below row of incised chevrons alternately filled with pointillé and reserved, enclosed above by line; on base, concentric band of upright triangles filled with pointillé alternating with pendant reserved triangles between single lines; one pair of perforations in lower body: lid; on top, three concentric bands outlined by single lines, the lower two forming split reserved lozenge with upright and pendant triangles filled with pointillé, the upper most with upright triangles filled with pointillé alternating with pendant reserved triangles; on side, band of reserved lozenges split and enclosed by single lines with upright and pendant triangles filled with pointillé; on lip, row of upright triangles, with similar band internally; remains of horizontal perforation through knob.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 2200BC-1600BC (circa)
Findspot: Found/Acquired: Aldbourne IV, Barrow 280 round barrow Bowl Barrow No6 Burial 1
Materials
Technique: incised; pointillé; perforated; pierced
Dimensions: Diameter: 101 millimetres (cup); Diameter: 102.03 millimetres (lid); Diameter: 103 millimetres (lid); Diameter: 72 millimetres; Height: 66.34 millimetres (lid); Height: 51 millimetres; Height: 60 millimetres; Weight: 266 grammes (lid); Weight: 149 grammes; Thickness: 9.50 millimetres (lid); Thickness: 6.34 millimetres
Curator's comments: Kinnes 1994 Description of site: Isolated barrow at 150 m OD on slope of dry valley in dissected chalk downland. Circumstances: Excavated by Greenwell in October 1878 (Greenwell 280; ‘The Times’ 8 Oct. 1878; Greenwell, W., 1890. Recent researches in barrows in Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, etc. ‘Archaeologia’ 52, 50-3): mound of mixed earth, chalk and sarsen blocks (Diam. 27 m; H. 1.8 m: 'Victoria County History of Wiltshire', I.1. 1957, London, 147) over sarsen cairn (Diam. 8.5 m, H. 1.5 m); at centre, deturfed area (L. 1.4 m, W.l.l m; N-S) with ‘wood’ flooring on which cremation deposit covered by charcoal and ‘ashes’, with at S blade fragments (1879,1209.1820), awl fragments (1879,1909.1821-2), cup (1879,1209.1818), button (1879,12091829), beads (1879,1209.1823-6), rings (1879,1209.1827-8), pebble (1879,1209.1831) and fossil (1879,1209.1830); in charcoal cover, flint flakes (1879,1209.1832-4); 0.15 m to N of 'grave' a few burnt bones with cup (1879,1209.1819); in cairn, 2 arrowheads (1879,1209.1835-6), boar tusks (1879,1209.1837-8) and animal bones; in mound, sherds (1879,1209.1840-1840f) and flint flakes (lost). Note that two faience and one amber bead from grave and flints from mound are lost. Contextual information: 2a Dating and interpretation for grave group: Within Wessex 2 by presence of variety of beads, especially faience; metal work poorly preserved and not diagnostic, and other materials, apart from Aldbourne Cup(s) non-specific. For cups, cremations consistent; faience, shale, amber and awl at Wimborne St Giles G8; shale, bone and unclassified miniature vessel at Aldbourne G12; exceptional association of Type Camerton dagger, whetstone-pendant and bronze bulb-headed pin at Camerton; four of eight cups in graves with no other associations. Comparisons: Eight cups in Aldbourne style (Piggott, S., 1938. The Early Bronze Age in Wessex, ‘Proc. Prehistoric Soc.’ 4, 71) of uniform form and standardised decoration; this is unique in having lid.
Bibliographic references: Kinnes et al 1985 / The Greenwell Collection (280:4); Kinnes 1994 / A17-30: Beaker and Early Bronze Age Grave Groups (No.30.4)
Location: On display (G51/dc11)
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1879
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1879,1209.1818
Conservation

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