Collar

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This gold collar, also called a lunula, is one of two found at Southside in Lanarkshire. It is a high status ornament, worn sometime between 2300 and 2000 BC.

The collar was made by hammering out the gold to a thin sheet, then decorating it with incised lines and punched dots. The plain panel between the lines has been hammered and roughened.

Gold collars or lunulae were originally made in Ireland, but were imported and copied throughout Britain, where they certainly functioned as symbols of power. Some of the decorative patterns were adopted from beaker pottery.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-036-527-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.FE 74
• Date: Between 2300 and 2000 BC
  
• Material: Gold; tapering to the extremities where it ends in sub-oval disc-like expansions; ornamented with incised lines and punctulations
  Lunula
  
• Dimensions: 7.00" max D x 1.94" B at middle; weight 1 oz 7 dwt
  
• What: Lunula
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Lanarkshire, Coulter, Southside
  
• Event:
• Description: Gold lunula tapering to the extremities where it ends in sub-oval disc-like expansions, ornamented with incised lines and punctulations, from Southside, near Coulter, Lanarkshire
  
• 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 184-5, 190, 261-2. 
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