Stone wrist-guard
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Early Bronze Age stone wrist-guards are found across Europe from around 2400-1900BC and are closely associated with the 'Beaker culture' and 'Unetice culture'. In the past they have be variously known as stone bracers, stone arm-guards and armlets, although stone wrist-guard is currently the favoured terminology.
The wrist-guards are small rectangles of stone (often slate) with a number of perforations, typically between two and six, to allow attachment to the arm with cord. The shapes of wrist-guard are well stereotyped and common forms exhibit a narrowed 'waist' and curved cross-section (presumably so they fit the arm better). Stone wrist-guards are exclusivley found in the grave of males, often lying next to the corpse's wrist. Occasionally very rare examples are found decorated with gold rivets.
It was originally thought that these stone wrist-guards were used by archers to protect their arms from the recoil of the bow, however recent research has highlighted that (in Britain at least) they do not commonly occur in graves in association with arrowheads and nor are they commonly found on the part of the arm that would need protection from the bow string (on a right-handed archer; the inside left wrist). It now seems far more likely that these objects were used as symbols of status within family groups. This is based on the fact that when the objects occur in barrows, they always occur in the central primary grave, a place thought to be reserved for heads of family and other important people. See Smith 2006
Famous burials containing stone wrist-guards include the Amesbury Archer and Barnack Burial
[edit] Terminology
The wrist-guards are commonly classified following either the 1970 Atkinson classification (cited in Clarke 1970) or the 2006 Smith classification. Of the two it is the 2006 Smith classification which is less rigid and more descriptive. It uses a three-character system to classify the objects on three simple characteristics:
Total number of perforations: (e.g. 2, 4, 6 etc.)
Shape in plan: described as-
- 'Waisted', having a narrow mid-section
- 'Tapered', having narrow ends
- 'Straight-sided', having a rectangular plan
Shape in transverse cross-section: described as-
- 'Curved', having a concavo-convex cross-section
- 'Plano-Convex', having a plano-convex cross-section, (i.e. on side flat and the other curved)
- 'Flat', having a flat or slightly bi-convex cross-section
The most common types of wrist-guard are the 'tapered variety' consisting of 2TFs, 'straight variety' consisting mainly of 4SFs and 6SFs and the 'waisted variety' consisting mainly of 4WCs
This is how the 1970 Atkinson classification translates into the newer classificatory system:
A1 =2TF
A2 =2TF
B1 =2SF
B2 =4SF
B3 =6SF
C1 =4WC
C2 =2WC
[edit] References
- Clarke, D.L. 1970. Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland (two volumes). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Smith, J. 2006. "Early Bronze Age Stone Wrist-Guards in Britain: archer's bracer or social symbol?" in Archaeology Chaos, available at http://www.geocities.com/archchaos1/article1/1.htm
