Salisbury Museum’s new Wessex Gallery showcases over 2,500 rare objects which tell the story of early Britain from the ancient Britons and Beaker people through to the Roman invasion and the Norman Conquest.
The £2.4 million Wessex Gallery of Archaeology was opened by anthropologist and TV presenter Professor Alice Roberts.
The new gallery houses over 2,500 rare objects which tell the story of early Britain from the ancient Britons and Beaker people through to the Roman invasion and the Norman Conquest. Some of the gallery’s most famous and treasured exhibits include the Beaker grave of the Amesbury Archer, a circa 2300BC Bronze Age man who was uncovered in 2002 with his possessions including Britain’s oldest gold objects. Other key pieces in the new gallery are the Warminster Jewel, a manuscript pointer from Alfred the Great’s reign, and the Wardour Hoard, one of the most important Bronze Age hoards in the country with over 100 objects including copper alloy spearheads, chisels and sword pieces dating from 2000-800BC discovered in 2011.
The Wessex Gallery also places the story of Stonehenge within its wider chronological and regional context. For example, it explores the stories of the archaeologists who uncovered the past – such as William Stukeley, who was one of the first to link the druids with Stonehenge, and the objects they discovered. It will include the gneiss mace-head found by Colonel William Hawley in 1924 and a bronze-age axe and dagger, which match the carvings on stone 53 discovered by Professor Richard Atkinson in July 1953. The gallery integrates and replaces two former galleries at the Salisbury Museum: the Pitt-Rivers Archaeological Collection and the Early Man Gallery.
More information: www.salisburymuseum
