Long-necked beaker

This Beaker was buried with a skeleton under a barrow just to the North of the Cursus near Stonehenge. The Beaker is carefully decorated with band of chevrons bordered by lines around the rim, below the waist and around the base, a band of lozenge shapes around neck and cross-hatching around the body, all using comb and fingernail impressions. Beakers are a distinctive type of pottery, with similar shapes and decoration used across Europe. They are often found in burials, placed at by the feet of the skeleton. The first Beakers are made in Britain at the same time as metal is first used, soon after 2,500BC. These Beakers may have contained drink, perhaps to sustain the dead person in their journey beyond the grave. Beaker burials are also sometimes accompanied by archery equipment and copper or bronze dagger. Caption: David Dawson (Wiltshire Museum)