An Ornate, 5,000-Year-Old Stone Drum Is the U.K.'s Most Significant Prehistoric Art Find in a Centur

Now on view in London, the chalk sculpture was buried alongside three children between 3005 and 2890 B.C.E.

Jane Recker
February 18, 2022



Archaeologists found a 5,000-year-old drum, a clay ball and a polished bone pin at a children's burial in the English village of Burton Agnes. © The Trustees of the British Museum

A 5,000-year-old chalk sculpture discovered in East Yorkshire, England, is “the most important piece of prehistoric art” unearthed in Great Britain in the past century, says Neil Wilkin, a curator of Early Europe at the British Museum, in a statement. Dubbed the “Burton Agnes drum” after the village where it was found in 2015, the intricately decorated artifact was buried alongside three children, reports BBC News.

Archaeologists found a 5,000-year-old drum, a clay ball and a polished bone pin at a children's burial in the English village of Burton Agnes. © The Trustees of the British Museum
A 5,000-year-old chalk sculpture discovered in East Yorkshire, England, is “the most important piece of prehistoric art” unearthed in Great Britain in the past century, says Neil Wilkin, a curator of Early Europe at the British Museum, in a statement. Dubbed the “Burton Agnes drum” after the village where it was found in 2015, the intricately decorated artifact was buried alongside three children, reports BBC News.

“The context [of the discovery] as a whole was absolutely incredible,” says Alice Beasley, a senior archaeologist at Allen Archaeology, which oversaw the 2015 dig, to Carol Off of CBC Radio’s “As It Happens.” “It was found … in the center of what we call a round barrow. And in that center was a square pit, in which we found three skeletons of quite young children. The eldest was about 12 and was holding on to the two smaller children, [aged] about 3 and 5.”

Mark Allen, founder of Allen Archaeology, tells the Washington Post’s William Booth that the children, who appear to have died at the same time but exhibit no obvious signs of trauma, were essentially cuddling.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/an-ornate-5000-year-old-stone-drum-is-the-uks-most-significant-prehistoric-art-find-in-a-century-180979604/