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july 28, 2021 - British Museum

Stunning 3,000-year-old gold pendant to go on public display for the first time

• Rare 3,000-year-old sun pendant to be displayed to the public for the first time at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery as part of the British Museum’s National Programmes.

• Shrewsbury Museum will also be fundraising to acquire other finds close to the findspot, including a unique lead gold-ring parcel and an axe which has the potential to date the transition from Bronze Age to Iron Age.

• Most significant piece of Bronze Age gold metalwork found in over a century in Britain – the only example of a British bulla that we currently have.

• A masterpiece of European Bronze Age gold work, it is evidence of the importance of the sun in people’s beliefs and cosmology during this period.

An extraordinary sun pendant is to go on public display for the first time as part of the British Museum’s National Programmes. The sun pendant, also known as a bulla, could be one of the most significant pieces of Bronze Age metalwork ever discovered in Britain. The rare and spectacular object will be hosted at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery later this year from September until December as a British Museum Spotlight Loan. Discovered in the Shropshire Marches in May 2018 by an anonymous metal detector user, nothing like the sun pendant has been found in this country for over a century. Shrewsbury also hopes to acquire other archeologically significant Bronze Age objects from the same findspot and is launching a crowdfunding campaign to display these objects at the same time as the sun pendant. These important objects allow visitors an insight into the full historic story an opportunity to admire the extraordinary craftsmanship of the objects close to their discovery spot, and help to understand the significance of the local landscape to Bronze Age Britain.

The sun pendant (HESH-43148A) is over 3,000 years old, dating between 1000–800BC in the late Bronze Age period. The elegant form and intricate decoration of the gold pendant includes an exceptionally rare depiction of the sun – not previously seen on objects found in Britain. Solar symbolism was a key element of mythology and belief in the Bronze Age and this pendant celebrates the life-giving power of the sun during the time of the earliest metalworkers. The sun pendant is therefore a hugely significant addition to knowledge of the art and iconography of Bronze Age Britain.


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