Bronze Age bling! Archaeologists discover 4,000-year-old necklace was made from dog whelk and tusk shells
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Bronze Age Brits were wearing bling around 4,000 years before today's flashy pop stars and footballers, reveals new research.
A study proved our ancestors adorned themselves with necklaces featuring mollusc shells.
Scientists analysed amino acids to identify the raw materials used to make beads in a 4,000 year old necklace unearthed during an archaeological dig in Suffolk.
beads in a 4,000 year old necklace (pictured) were found to be made of Dog whelks and tusk shells.
BRONZE AGE CRAFTMANSHIP
The Bronze Age began in Britain about 2,000 BC when new bronze tools and weapons were brought over from continental Europe.
The skulls recovered from burial sites from the Bronze Age are different in shape from Stone Age skulls, suggesting new ideas and new blood were arriving.
Stone and bronze can be used together, subject to the availability of both materials. True bronze is a combination of 10 per cent tin and 90 per cent copper. Both materials were readily available in Britain at this time.
Before its entry into Britain, the Bronze Age was in full swing in Europe. The island of Crete was centre for the expansion of the bronze trade to Europe.
The Mycenaeans created the finest bronze weapons. They came from southern Russia at around 2,000 BC, and settled in the lowlands of Greece. There they began to trade with the Minoans. They built a large navy, and began to attack nearby lands.
Bonze Age craftsmen used species such as dog whelk and tusk shells, both of which were likely to have been sourced and worked locally, to fashion the tiny disc-shaped balls, according to the findings published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The necklace was found by archaeologists at an Early Bronze Age burial site at Great Cornard, near Sudbury, and researchers wanted to know where the items came from.
The Mediterranean thorny oyster, for instance, is a shell of long-standing symbolic and cultural significance which is known to have been used on the continent around the time when the necklace was made.
But powerful microscopes found this not to be the case, and an alternative possibility has now been suggested.
Dr Beatrice Demarchi, of the University of York, said: 'Dog whelks and tusk shells were likely to be available locally so these people did not have to travel far to get hold of the raw materials for their beads.
The necklace was found by archaeologists at an Early Bronze Age burial site at Great Cornard, near Sudbury, and researchers wanted to know where the items came from.
'There is evidence, from elsewhere in Britain and further afield, for the use of tusk shells at various times in the past. This may well be because they are relatively easy to work and their hollow shape is very distinctive.'
Study co-author Dr Julie Wilson added: 'The statistical analysis used pattern recognition algorithms for taxonomic identification, comparing the composition of the beads with a large database of shell amino acid compositions.
'Although we cannot know the origin of the beads for certain, our multi-disciplinary approach provides additional evidence for the identifications.'
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