DepthReading

Italian axe and Yorkshire drums tell of a prehistoric Brexit

Summary: Stonehenge exhibition illustrates apparent hiatus in flow of people and ideas

Stonehenge exhibition illustrates apparent hiatus in flow of people and ideas

 This Bronze Age bronze, copper alloy and oak flesh-hook, from Dunaverny, Co Antrim, will form part of the exhibition. Photograph: Trustees of the British Museum/PA

A jade axe from the Italian Alps and three drums carved out of Yorkshire chalk are among artefacts that have been brought together for an exhibition at Stonehenge and tell the story of a prehistoric version of Brexit.

The exhibition, Making Connections: Stonehenge in its Prehistoric World, explains the movement of people between the British Isles and continental Europe.

Before Stonehenge appeared, the exhibition shows, Britain and Ireland had close connections with their continental neighbours as the earliest farmers migrated to and from mainland Europe: hence the appearance of the highly polished jade axe from the Alps, which arrived in Britain in about 4000BC.

These late Neolithic carved chalk cylinders, known as the Folkton Drums, are from north Yorkshire. Photograph: English Heritage

However, during the era when Stonehenge was being built and used – the stones arrived in about 2500BC and the structure was complete by 2000BC or thereabouts – there was an apparent hiatus in cross-Channel cultural exchange.

Later, by the early bronze age, mass migration between the continent and the British Isles had begun again and objects shown in the exhibition, such as the Blessington lunula, a spectacular golden collar found in Ireland but with European markings, were being created.

Susan Greaney, an English Heritage historian, said the exhibition illustrated a constantly changing ebb and flow of people, objects, styles and ideas. “Our ancestors have been making and breaking relationships with continental Europe for thousands of years,” she said.


 An early Neolithic jade axe, from near Canterbury in Kent, will go on display at Stonehenge.

The central question that cannot be answered is what brought about the hiatus at the time of Stonehenge’s construction. “We don’t know why,” said Greaney. “It seems the British Isles and mainland Europe diverged. It may be there are different languages, different religious beliefs.”

Travel was not an issue – there was still movement and swapping of ideas and objects between mainland Britain and Ireland at the time. And Greaney does not think there was a falling out. “It’s not necessarily that there was conflict,” she said. “There may just have been a different way of looking at the world and doing things.”

The idea of the exhibition was to bring objects from the British Museum in London to Stonehenge – the first time this has been done – to help to place the Wiltshire site in this ancient, shifting European context. It is not trying to make any political statements about current relations between the UK and Europe.

One of the standout objects is the jade axe, which was not a practical object but is believed to have ceremonial or symbolic significance and shows close links between continental Europe and the British isles in the pre-Stonehenge days.

Another stunning exhibit is the Folkton drums, three elaborately carved chalk cylinders found in the grave of a child in North Yorkshire. They probably date to the late Neolithic period as the geometric and spiral decoration and stylised faces are seen on grooved ware pottery and megalithic monuments of this period.

They are in the exhibition to represent the hiatus when what is now the UK and Ireland appeared to become more insular. People were travelling all around the British Isles but if they were venturing to the continent they appeared not to be bringing back objects – or ideas.

The rapprochement is illustrated in objects including the gold Ringlemere cup, which was found in 2001 by metal detectorists in a Kent field and is stunning, despite a dent believed to have been made by a plough. Such “precious cups” have been found in southern England and northern France, showing a close connection at this time between communities living on either side of the channel.

 The Ringlemere cup, found in 2001 in a field in Kent. The dent is believed to have been made by a plough.

Another object that points to cross-Channel links is the Dunaverney flesh-hook, discovered in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Decorated with swans and ravens, it would have been used to lift meat out of great cauldrons during ceremonies. Such hooks have been found across Europe, showing that people on the continent were having similar feasts.

Neil Wilkin, a curator of the bronze age collection at the British Museum, said: “To be able to bring all these objects together for the first time at Stonehenge, one of the most important symbols of ancient Britain, is an exciting prospect.”

Category: English DepthReading
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