ARCHEOLOGY – This chalk drum, dating from the time of Stonehenge is, according to the British Museum, the most important prehistoric discovery for a century in the United Kingdom.
Archaeologists have unearthed a 5,000-year-old sculpture in England, which represents an exceptional prehistoric discovery, the British Museum announced on Thursday February 10.
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The chalk drum, which despite its name has no musical vocation, dates from the time of Stonehenge and will be visible during the exhibition on the Neolithic site which opens on February 17 in the London museum. “This is truly a remarkable find, the most significant piece of prehistoric art found in Britain in the last 100 years.said Neil Wilkin, curator of the exhibition.
According to the museum, this drum is “one of the most elaborately decorated objects from this period found anywhere in Britain and Ireland“. Its style evokes in particular the objects of Stonehenge. The decorated cylinder was discovered in the tomb of three children, whose hands are touching. It was placed just above the eldest child’s head, along with a chalk ball and a needle made from polished bone.
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Three similar drums in the museum
The discovery was made about 384 kilometers from Stonehenge, near the village of Burton Agnes (north of England). A comparable bullet and needles had been found at Stonehenge and around the site, suggesting that populations in Britain and Ireland shared “artistic styles, and probably beliefs, at remarkable distances“, underlined the British Museum.
The museum’s collection includes three similar drums found in 1889 in a child’s burial about 24 kilometers from the last discovery. These three objects, known as the Folkton Drums, are among “the most famous and enigmatic ancient objects ever found in excavations in Britain“, according to the museum. They were created around the same time as the first phase of the construction of Stonehenge, between 3005 and 2890 BC.