The Late Neolithic Gold Ornament from Bennekom. II. The Affiliations of the Bennekom Ornament (pls. VI-XI; figs. 12-15)

Abstract

(pp. 68-69)

Conclusions. The gold ornament from Bennekom appears to be a hybrid object. Its decoration is in the style of the Western European gold basket earrings, of late Beaker-Early Bronze Age date, current about 1550; but in form it is most immediately related to a series of gold ornaments found in South Scandinavia (assigned, however, to Montelius VI) and in turn to the elongated copper or bronze earrings of the Northern Unetice sphere. The Bennekom ornament may have been made by an Irish gold-worker or, it is somewhat tentatively suggested in view of the chronological difficulties, in South Scandinavia, where there is some ground for suspecting the existence of a school of gold-working during the Northern Late Neolithic.

The affinities of the Bennekom ornament with the Western gold basket earrings and with the Unetice ornaments, as well as its probable association with a Bell Beaker of Veluwe type, seem to establish beyond reasonable doubt that it is an object which came to the Veluwe in the course of the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age gold trade. It is contemporary with the gold basket earrings, which were traded as far afield as Poland, and possibly with such undated stray finds as the Moordorf sun disc and the Arlon neckring; it is also likely to be contemporary with the Irish axe-and-halberd trade to the Continent. The Bennekom ornament and the basket earrings appear to provide a useful trade horizon linking Beaker, Single Grave and Early Bronze Age cultures across Northern Europe.