Stonehenge Ancient Tools Point to More Advanced Society Than Known?

Stonehenge Ancient Tools look like flint cups and axes from the Neolithic period. Over time, they have been a real puzzle for archaeologists. It all started with their finding 200 years ago. Now archaeologists are studying them again, and four are under examination for the first time.

Archaeologists determined mysterious items found at a burial site are part of the toolkit of a shaman. It is said he made countless gold treasures 4,000 years ago. Also, archaeologists applied contemporary technologies to the research. It includes examining the tool surfaces with scanning electron microscopy and measuring microwear.

With research, they found the Stonehenge Ancient Tools’s owner was probably a gold miner. He shaped the priceless metal into sheets for use in gilding other objects. Found in Upton Lovell, Wiltshire, in 1801, the toolkit included five stone hammer-like tools and polished stones. Also, all contained shiny traces of gold.

A research conducted by the Journal of Antiquity shows important details about the findings. It shows that Stonehenge Ancient Tools purpose was to make objects of wood or copper. They also have a decoration of a thin gold sheet. “Our work shows that the humble stone toolkit purpose was to make gold objects thousands of years ago”, said lead author Rachel Crellin in a statement.

“The man buried at Upton Lovell, close to Stonehenge, had good crafting skills. He specialized in making gold objects”, Lisa Brown, curator at the Wiltshire Museum, said in a statement. “New research like this is invaluable in helping the museum tell Wiltshire’s ever-evolving story.”

In the early 2000s, research conducted by University of Cambridge professor Colin Shell first identified the possible traces of gold on the tools. However, until these recent findings, archaeologists couldn’t determine the remnants on four additional stone artifacts. Also, exactly how ancient they are.

“New research identified further four stone objects with gold on their surfaces. Also, characteristic wear traces, linking a wider suite of items from the burial to the gold working process”, a statement from the University of Leicester said.

They now know that a tool with grooves for abrading once scrubbed copper in addition to gold. The purpose of the dull axe heads was to crush pigments. “This helps us understand the highly skilled processes involved in making gold objects in the Bronze Age. It also shows the continuing importance of museum collections”, said Dr. Oliver Harris, who leads Beyond the Three Age System.

Wiltshire Museum curator Lisa Brown added the central enigma’s “ceremonial cloak decorated with pierced animal bones and hints that he was a spiritual leader. Also, he was one of the few people in the early Bronze Age who understood the magic of metalworking”.