Story of Stonehenge to be told in upcoming British Museum exhibition

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A bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols and two gold cone-shaped hats decorated with solar motifs are among objects from the Stonehenge era that will go on show for the first time in the UK at a landmark exhibition at the British Museum.

The objects are among more than 250 being loaned to the nation’s flagship museum by institutions in six European countries and across the UK. In total, more than 430 objects will be on display at the British Museum’s first ever big exhibition on the story of Stonehenge, which opens in February.

The aim is to set the stone monument – built 4,500 years ago, and one of the most recognisable sights in Europe – into the context of an era during which there was huge social and technological change.

The 3,600-year-old Nebra sky disc is being loaned from the Halle museum in Germany. Discovered by treasure hunters in 1999, it has a blue-green patina and its gold symbols are believed to represent the sun, moon and stars.

“It is the earliest concrete depiction of the cosmos in the world, and an amazing object to behold. It encodes key astronomical information,” said Wilkin.

People tended to think of Stonehenge as “quintessentially British, but actually this was a world of interconnection and interconnectivity right across Europe. What we show is that you can’t understand Stonehenge without understanding its European setting,” Wilkin said.

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