Bronze Age Aldbourne Cup

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Details

Graham first had the pleasure of making a replica of this lovely little accessory pot as part of a project with the Aldbourne Heritage Centre in Wiltshire.  Towards the end of 2015, he was contacted by John Dymond and Alan Heasman from the Aldbourne Heritage Centre, asking if he would be able to replicate the Aldbourne Cup.  Which Graham duly did, in fact he made two, one of the cup as it looks now and one as if looked on the day it was made, both are on in the Aldbourne Heritage Centre.

Much research went into the creation of this beautiful object, including a trip to the British Museum, the original cup's current home.   Having a chance to handle the real object allowed Graham to identify features that had not been obvious in photographs or drawings.  One such observation was the perforations that formed the decoration, were circular rather than square. Many Bronze-Age beakers, food vessels and the like are decorated by impressing a shallow-toothed comb into the wet clay, forming dotted lines. These combs are almost invariably made by cutting grooves across the edge of a flat piece of bone or antler, this results in a row square or rectangular teeth.

The Aldbourne cup, on the other hand, had been decorated with a comb composed of round pins, probably three 2mm pins placed in a row and sharpened at the tips to produce 1mm holes spaced 1mm apart. As luck would have it the same burial produced 2 bronze pins pretty much fitting this description, which previous investigators had suggested may have been tattooing tools. A little research yielded images of Polynesian tattooing combs that informed Graham's reconstruction of a tool suitable for decorating the pot with a truly authentic look. 

Materials

Smoke fired Terracotta

Dimensions

Diameter at rim 120 mm  x  Height 120 mm

Firing

It has been fired to emulate the ancient firing conditions. The original pot would have been fired in an open wood fire, in close contact with the fuel, a process that leaves its mark on the clay as variations in the surface colour. However, the very low temperatures achieved in open firings also result in pots that are relatively weak, so this pot has been fired to a somewhat higher temperature to strengthen it, in a special firing process that allows me to achieve an authentic appearance to the pot.

Production

As with all my Museum Quality Replicas, this pot has been made, as the original would have been, entirely by hand from natural clay and using replicas of the types of tools that the Bronze Age makers would have used.  In keeping with the original pot, the decoration has been applied using a hand-twisted cord made from natural bark fibres, in this case, Lime Bark Bast.

Health & Safety

This is a Museum Quality Replica and is not intended for use as a drinking vessel, if you require replica pots for actual use with food of beverages, please ask before purchasing.

Postage

All items are sent using a second-class postal service; if you wish to have an item sent first-class, please contact me for a quote. Many Thanks