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Back to previous pageLOT 0072
Sold for (Inc. bp): £156
8TH-7TH CENTURY B.C.
4 5/8 in. (5 3/4 in.) (86 grams (134 grams), 11.9 cm(14.5 cm)).
Formed as a domed disc pendant with openwork cross and central hole; triangular bale above, three loops below each with a crotal bell attached; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]
PROVENANCE:
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
LITERATURE:
Cf. for the typology the bronze disc at the Metropolitan Museum, accession no.1991.171.60.
FOOTNOTES:
The round element represents the four-spoked wheel of a chariot, typical of the Bronze Age. The motif has been interpreted as solar symbolism since this period. The circularity between solar cosmologies—symbolic wheel/solar vehicle/functional chariot—was deeply ingrained since at least the 15th century from North Europe to Aegeaum, and continued in the early Iron Age.
