Gold collar found at Auchentaggart, Dumfriesshire

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This gold collar, also called a lunula, was found at Auchentaggart in Dumfriesshire. It is a high status ornament, either made in Ireland or imported from there, sometime between 2300 and 2000 BC.

The collar is made of a single crescentic sheet of gold with expanded ends. The edges have been decorated with a punch. It was broken in antiquity, with the holes for an attempted repair visible. The repair on the left hand horn, however, is modern.

The shape of these collars gave such objects their traditional name - a lunula, or little moon. Gold collars were originally made in Ireland, but were imported and copied throughout Britain, where they certainly functioned as symbols of power.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-036-462-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.FE 3
• Date: 2300 - 2000 BC
  
• Material: Gold; expanded ends; ornamented with cross panelling, including horizontal lines, punched dots, transverse nicks and zigzag dentition
  Lunula / collar
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Lunula / collar
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Dumfriesshire, Auchentaggart
  
• Event:
• Description: Gold lunula or collar with expanded ends, found at Auchentaggart, Dumfriesshire: probably Irish, Bronze Age
  
• References:
  • Clarke, D.V., Cowie, T.G. & Foxon, Andrew (Eds.). Symbols of power at the time of Stonehenge. Edinburgh: National Museums of Antiquities of Scotland, 1985, pp 184-6, 190, 261
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