Banc Ty'nddôl's sun disk
The decorated sun disc of Banc Ty'nddôl (English Banc Ty'nddôl sun-disc) was discovered in 2002 in the mining area of the Cwmystwyth mines in Ceredigion in Wales . More than 4000 years old, the disc is the oldest gold artifact discovered in Wales.
The Banc Ty'nddôl sun disk is a small, decorated gold disk that was most likely part of clothing and part of a funeral. She was found by a team of archaeologists studying Roman and medieval lead smelting beneath the Bronze Age copper mine on Copa Hill.
The disc has a diameter of 38.9 mm and a mass of 2.51 g. It consists of 93 to 94% gold and 6 to 7% silver and a tiny amount of copper. It is decorated with three concentric rings and points and pierced in the middle with two holes, which were apparently used for attachment. The design was primarily determined to belong to the bell beaker tradition. Even if the source of the metal cannot be determined, the composition speaks for Irish-Scottish-Welsh gold. Investigations of the site revealed skeletal remains that were once covered by a round cairn that was preserved as a crescent of rubble.
Similar artifacts have been found in Brittany, Ireland, and the Isle of Man . Most of the examples of "sun disks" were found in Ireland (21), while smaller numbers are from Scotland (6), England (5) and France. The Banc Ty'nddôl disk best fits an example of unknown origin from Ireland, with two to four linear driven circles and two central perforations. An example with driven dots is from Kirk Andreas on the Isle of Man. Gold disks with similar dot and line decorations were also discovered in Neolithic tombs in Brittany, where they are associated with subsequent use by the early cup people. At Mere and Farleigh Wick in Wiltshire , three examples were also associated with cup burials (one as a pair and one as a single find).
These and other items from similar burial sites are all dated from 2500 to 1900 BC. Dated.
literature
- Simon Timberlake: The Banc Ty'nddôl sun-disc - one of Wales's earliest gold objects . Celtic Design Studio. Archived from the original on March 10, 2006.
Coordinates: 52 ° 21 ′ 10 " N , 3 ° 46 ′ 8" W.