Solar Jewelry - Mary Cahill

"Here Comes the Sun" is a short article by Mary Cahill in the Spring 2015 Archaeology Ireland

Many items manufactured by Beakers, whether it was houses, jet buttons, boar's tusks or pottery, in some way incorporate explicit or metaphoric associations with solar religion.  This article looks at some of those associations found in Beaker gold.

One very plausible possibility is that lunulae represent solar boats, which may represent the moon as well.  The Brone Age Nebra sky disk from Saxony-Anhalt is one of several examples showing a solar boat transitioning across the sky.

Nebra Sky Disk with Solar Boat (Unetice Culture)

Solar crosses are prominent in Beaker gold.  They also are found in various forms of beaker pottery in several regions.  Considering the bottom of bell beakers is this quote from Kristiansen:

"...Kristian Kristiansen (2011, 153) has remarked that, when the cups are raised to the
mouth, the sun would be seen to rise metaphorically as the image became visible."

This is especially meaningful when considering the content of the beaker.  I've made several posts concerning the discovery of Hyoscyamus niger (the herb of Apollo Helios) in a Ciempozuelos beer beaker, also found with regularity throughout Bronze Age Europe.

Solar crosses, probably sewn to clothing.

Continuing with Greek mythology as a proxy, it's possible to further unpack the metaphoric meanings of certain grave items.  For example, Selena Artemis (the moon) is, like her sun god brother, uniquely associated with archery.  Her bow was symbolic of the moon and also being the huntress, associated with wild boars (presumably due to the crescent tusks).

The similarity in decoration of Central European boar's tusk pendants and Atlantic lunulae is quite evident.  However, the development of lunulae from boar's tusks might be demonstrated in Chalcolithic Portugal as well.  (Valera, 2010 another interesting paper)

One passing comment about the solar crosses.  In this article, Cahill suggests that the cross represents the halo of the sun (very plausible or most plausible)  Another possibility that may be also true is that the four spoke wheel had become common enough to become known by this time in Europe.  This is important because by the Iron Age the chariot becomes the vehicle of solar movement in many religions.

More on jewelry to come...

Archaeology Ireland, Spring 2015 issue [here]

Bead Wampum

Emerging economies : late Neolithic and Copper
Age beads and pendants of the Portuguese
Estremadura, Iowa Research Online, Thomas (2014) [Link]

Fig 116.  Calcite and Slate "Wampum" from Cabeҫo da Arruda I (Thomas, 2014)

I guess the most interesting part of this thesis is the theory that a sort of Bead Monetary system (Wampum) had begun to develop in the Late Neolithic (semi-aka Chalcolithic) Portugal.  This system would have belonged to the slate-plaque, pre-Beaker folk from Portugal.  Here's what Thomas writes:

Considering the batch production of large numbers of identically-sized calcite beads in
Estremadura and slate beads in the Alentejo during this period, like other prestige goods, I
suggest that beads may have also served a monetary function between Late Neolithic and Copper Age groups in coastal and interior regions. This pattern of standardized trade bead production between regional groups, similar to the use of wampum beads as commodity money among chiefdom-scale groups in pre-contact North America (Arnold and Munns 2004; Shell 2013), has numerous ethnographic and archaeological parallels among complex, non-state societies across the world (Francis 1990:47; Kenoyer 2003).

These highly uniform Calcite or Slate beads recovered from collective burials in the region, according to Thomas's theory, would have been used essentially as short payment, like wampam.  They differ from the variable, exotic stones that were used for personal adornment during this period, which probably had real value, but not substitutionary, extrinsic value like money.

Really, it is that imaginary value placed on beads, coins, dollars, credits, debit, etc., that is the diagnostic indicator of a sophisticated economic system.

The development and centralization of the SW Iberian economy in the Late Neolithic and their growing monopolization of water courses and sea lanes is vital to understanding the sudden emergence of the Bell Beaker phenomenon.

Lunula found in Dorset, England

Another one

Dorset Lunula c 1300 B.C. (Portable Antiquities Database)

This is a recent find.  The first fragment was found in May and metal detectorists have found two or three more pieces in a heavily plowed field.

Lunulae were worn around the neck of important Bell Beaker men, perhaps as one have an office, such as a sheriff or a knight.  Funerary stelae depicting lunulae wearers show men dressed in the full idealistic garb with pommeled dagger, bow, tattoos, purse and twill kilt.

[link]

Boar's Tusks & Bowmen

Pavla Ruzickova wrote a paper back in 2009 on "Bow Shaped Pendants" made of Boar's tusks
of the Central European Bell Beakers.  Her thesis paper brought together a couple of previous thoughts.

Before I begin, I should note that any sort of Boar's tusk ornament or trophy in a Beaker burial is not exceedingly common.  However, tusks or tusk ornaments are periodically represented in graves throughout the entire Beaker horizon and may represent a low frequency, but unifying element across Beaker cultures.  It's only in the Central Continent that they are carved in this way.

Bell Beaker Culture in Moravia (ppt), Matějíčková & Dvořák et al, 2014

Boar's Tusk Pendants, like the ones above, are sometimes found on Beaker bowmen in decreasing frequency from Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Bavaria, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Baden and Brandenburg (Ruzickova, 2009).  They are also sometimes found in habitation assemblages. 

They were usually made of Boar's tusk, although finer, substitute materials were sometimes used in lieu.  I will trust most were discovered in an unambiguous, arched-down position.

Bow-Shaped Pendant 'nocks' (Ruzickova, 2009)

Fig. 18 modified (Ruzickova, 2009)

The ends of the ornament are usually nocked and this as interpreted by famed archeologist Stuart Piggott (1971) as imitating the nocks on a bow.  Some are nocked on both ends and some on one end. (and it is worth pointing out that some of these early bows, for example Otzi's, one end of the bow is nocked and the other end the string is tied in a timberjack knot)

"Beaker Bows" modified from Fig. 20 (Ruzickova,2009)

Upcoming on the Beaker Blog... 

Consider this an intermission on "Calculating the draw weight of a Beaker bow" series.

In part 2, I discuss how the arm bracers can inform us of how the bow was held.  From that, I deduced that there were three major bow classes used in those times.

I have several other non-metrics to cover in future posts, including (hopefully), osteological data that would seem to support compression and torsional injuries in the left forearm, lower humerus and clavicles of post-Neolithic archers, at least in the British Islands.

Tomorrow, I would like to discuss what Otzi's unfinished Italian yew longbow can tell us about Chalcolithic longbows and its development and impact on Late Neolithic societies in Europe, and a few other things...


Second and third pages to Beaker blog coming soon.


(1) "Bow-Shaped Pendants of the Bell Beaker Culture" (Ruzickova, 2009)