Gathering Light: a Bronze Age golden Sun
A British Museum Spotlight Loan
A metal detectorist working a patch of the Shropshire Marches heard the sound that made his heart skip a beat. Something lay buried beneath his feet. Removing the soft, peaty earth, daylight shimmered on a gold pendant exquisitely engraved with geometric patterns radiating from the centre like rays of sun at sunrise. He reported the find through the Treasure and Portable Antiquities Scheme. This identified it as a rare 3,000-year-old pendant sometimes known by the Latin word bulla, meaning ‘bubble’ because it is hollow inside. Following its discovery in 2018, the now famous Shropshire Sun Pendant is being shown here in Scotland for the first time in this British Museum Spotlight Loan.
The Shropshire Sun Pendant is internationally important. Dating from a time when ancient traditions were changing, its decoration recalls the importance of sunrise and ceremony at monuments like Stonehenge and Calanais 4,500 years ago. Its findspot at the edge of a pond reflects a new age when people turned to the landscape to make offerings to the powers of nature or, perhaps, their ancestors.
This exhibition celebrates the Bronze Age through gold artefacts on loan from the British Museum, alongside important objects from the Outer Hebrides. We explore links between changing technologies, beliefs and the natural environment during this fascinating period.
