Gold ornaments, pre-Christian cross, solar cross sheets

European Museums, The British Museum

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Prechristian cross gold sheet ornaments

5 Gold ornaments
Decorated sheet-gold discs are found mostly in Ireland. Two burial finds in Britain suggest that they were worn on the head or upper body; some have been found in pairs. The decoration, made by impressing the surface on one side, is often based on a cross within a circle. This pattern is also used on jet buttons in Britain and copper pins further afield. The 'basket' ornaments could have been worn on locks of hair or on the ears. The type mainly occurs in Britain and may be a sign of high status, as the discs were in Ireland.

Copper Age/Early Bronze Age
About 2500-2000 BC
Kilmuckridge, Co. Wexford; Douglas, Co. Cork,
Ireland; Kirk Andrews, Isle of Man, Cobham,
Kent (discs); Boltby Scar, North Yorkshire
('basket' ornaments) England

PE 1849,0301.31; 1854,1227.2 T.0a bequeathed
by Charles Townley; 1940,0404.1-2 presented
by Sir C. Smith-Dodsworth

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Prechristian cross gold sheet ornaments

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Source:  London, United Kingdom