Cremation urn
- Audio guide stop: 123
- Gallery: Room 1
- Culture: Early Bronze Age
- Object type: collared urn
- Materials: pottery
- Museum number: 1939,0506.2
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is "The Stockbridge Urn," a beautifully crafted collared urn from the Early Bronze Age. This pottery urn features intricate incised linear decoration that includes twisted cord designs. On its collar, you can see twisted cord-filled triangles flanked by three cord lines above and below, resting over a row of twisted cord horseshoes. Around the outer edge of the rim is a pattern of short, diagonal twisted cord lines, and three cord lines line the inner bevel of the rim.
This urn was discovered on Stockbridge Down and is a meaningful artifact from a burial site. It was found with various grave goods, including bronze tools and carefully arranged beads made from materials like faience, shale, and lignite. The design and context of this urn offer a rare glimpse into burial customs and artistic expression over three thousand years ago.
See it in person
Cremation urn is on display in Room 1 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 123, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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