Glimmers from the Mists of Prehistory

There's stone, bone, bronze and, extraordinarily given that these objects are thousands of years old, a surprising amount of wood. But it's the gold that steals the show in The World of Stonehenge at the British Museum in London. 

Between 1900 and 1600 BC -- yes, almost 4000 years ago, and that's quite a concept to get your head round -- craftsmen were able to create this remarkable gold cape, which was uncovered by workmen in North Wales in 1833. 

It's a stunning object in its own right, beautiful and mysterious. Imagine the sunlight glinting on it as the person who wore it -- and they must have been someone of great rank or status -- displayed it to.... whom? Worshippers, subjects? On some great day of celebration, presumably. On the other hand, the wearer would have been unable to move his or her upper arms.... 

Enormous skill and hard work went into its making, those patterns beaten out with only the most basic of tools. And consider the wealth it must have taken to create it, in a society that surely largely just subsisted. It weighs 560 grams; that amount of gold today costs more than £25,000. 

The Mold cape is one of a number of astonishing gold items in this exhibition, which, despite the title, is not really about how and why Stonehenge -- that prehistoric monument in Wiltshire that's part of our national consciousness -- was built, though there's a fair amount on that subject too.  

The aim is to give you something of a feel for how life might have been lived in north-west Europe all those thousands of years ago, right back to an age in which hunter-gatherers pursued a precarious existence, sparsely scattered in a mostly wooded landscape, with only the most primitive of implements. A land very close to home of which we know very little. 

It's an atmospheric experience. As your eyes grow accustomed to the subdued lighting, you become aware of the sounds of the wild animals and birds that inhabit this woodland, and very soon after the start you are drawn to a wall filled with dozens of stone axeheads, in all sorts of sizes and colours and degrees of finish. The basic tool of prehistoric man. 

Turn round and there are more axeheads, but these are very special ones. Beautifully shaped and honed, in gorgeous hues, almost as if they were jewels destined to be worn by giants. They were produced from green jadeitite high up on Monte Viso in the north-west Italian Alps and traded and exchanged across Europe. The ones displayed here were found as far apart as Wiesbaden, Jersey, Canterbury and Berwickshire. 

It must have taken an incredible amount of time, patience, skill and intense dedicated labour to fashion these objects, the luxury goods of five millennia ago. And in this exhibition you can see a stone that was used as a work surface to shape tools like these, with deep grooves that bear witness to many hours and much elbow grease expended in their creation. Should you fancy a modern replica of a jadeitite axehead, by the way, you can get one from the British Museum Shop for £1200. 

Wood was clearly much easier to work than stone, yet there was still ingenuity and craftsmanship demonstrated in the design and construction of a simple oak walkway to take ancient farming folk across swampy land in the Avalon Marshes in Somerset. The pegs were made of alder wood, which does not rot when waterlogged. It was mended but was used for perhaps only a decade before falling into disrepair. Archaeologists have examined the growth rings from the felled timber to date the walkway to 3807-3806 BC. Jaw-dropping. 

Other, equally old wooden artefacts can also be seen. A couple of tridents found in Cumbria may have been used as pitchforks, to anchor fishing nets or even in brewing beer.... 

And continuing with wood, there's Seahenge, a ring 6.6 metres in diameter comprising 55 oak posts that came to light on the Norfolk coast in 1998. In the middle of the 4000-year-old circle was an upturned tree stump 2.5 metres high and wide and weighing a ton. 

The circle, part of which is on show in the exhibition, may, like Stonehenge, have been aligned to the rising mid-summer and setting mid-winter sun. This wooden ring is very evocative, with an air of mysticism around it. 

How much of an air of mysticism do you get at Stonehenge itself? It's very difficult to shake off the modern world there, however impressive the stones are as they loom against the skyline. You've got the constant roar of the traffic on the A303, the garish, tatty camper vans of self-professed druids lining the dirt road alongside the stones, the busloads of tourists, and the omnipresent security guards in their high-vis jackets. 

Well, maybe there was a lot of razzamatazz back in the Bronze Age as well, even without the juggernauts; who can tell? There's so much we don't know.

There's certainly been a lot of speculation about the authenticity of one of the stars of this show -- the Nebra Sky Disc, found relatively recently in eastern Germany. This is the earliest known depiction of cosmic phenomena with representations of the sun, moon and stars. It's made of Cornish gold and bronze from central Europe, and it's a strikingly beautiful object, if rather bewildering for the non-astronomer. 

Not all of this exhibition is quite so gripping. There's a section in mid-show looking at remains from burial sites around Stonehenge, and while it's fascinating to consider that people who can be traced back to the Alps had found their way to western England during this era, not that many of the finds grab your attention. 

There are some superb bronze artefacts from Denmark, but you'll have to go to Copenhagen and the National Museum to see the best of them all, the Sun Chariot, which illustrates the belief that the sun was pulled on its daily journey across the skies by a divine horse. 

As man developed and settled the land, territory became all-important. We see the early rise of war, with weapons from bloody battles excavated in Germany, bronze helmets and armour from Italy and France. 

This piece from eastern France is decorated with cosmological symbols, showing how the incorporation of religious motifs into armour was intended to protect the warrior from harm. 

But at the end it all comes back to gold for the most memorable impressions from this show. Such as this exquisitely crafted tiny sun pendant or bulla, discovered in excellent condition by a metal detectorist in Shropshire only in 2018. It's only the second of its kind ever to have been found in Britain. Curators believe it would have been intentionally cast away as a sacrifice. Hard to credit that it dates from three millennia ago.  

An atmospheric, informative exhibition. There are a fair number of showstoppers, but be warned: it is quite intense and you may need to be patient as you wait your turn to look at some of the smaller exhibits and wall texts. Highly recommended. 

Practicalities 

The World of Stonehenge continues at the British Museum in London until July 17. It's open daily from 1000 to 1700, with lates on Fridays to 2030. You'll want to allow yourself two hours to see this exhibition. Full-price tickets are £20 (or £25 including a Gift Aid donation) Monday to Friday, £22 (£27 with Gift Aid) at the weekend. They're bookable online here. The museum entrance is on Great Russell St, with Holborn and Tottenham Court Road the nearest Tube stations.

If you want to visit Stonehenge.... 

The monument is near Amesbury in Wiltshire, and it's open daily. Times and ticket prices vary -- see the English Heritage website -- but standard adult admission is £26 including Gift Aid at peak periods. It is, however, actually possible to get quite close up to the stones for free on a public footpath that runs along the edge of the site, and there are atmospheric views from the National Trust land around the monument. There is, though, no ordinary public transport to the site.

Images

The Mold Gold Cape, Mold, Flintshire, 1900-1600 BC. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Alpine jadeitite axeheads, 4500-3500 BC, National Museums Scotland & British Museum

Oak and alder walkway from Avalon Marshes, 3807-3806 BC
Seahenge timber posts as seen on display in the Lynn Museum. On long-term loan to Norfolk Museums Service from the Le Strange Estate

Nebra Sky Disc, Germany, about 1600 BC. Photo courtesy of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, Juraj Lipták

Cuirass, Marmesse, Haute-Marne, 900-800 BC, Musée d’Archéologie Nationale - Domaine national de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Bronze Age sun pendant, 1000-800 BC. © The Trustees of the British Museum