British archaeologists have unearthed a 5,000-year-old sculpture, the country’s most important prehistoric find in a century, the British Museum announced on Thursday.
The chalk drum, which despite its name has no musical purpose, dates from the time of the prehistoric Stonehenge monument and can be seen in the exhibition on the Neolithic period that will open on February 17 at the museum located in London.
“This is a truly extraordinary find, the most important piece of prehistoric art found in Britain in the last 100 years,” said Neil Wilkin, the exhibition’s curator.
According to the museum, the drum is “one of the most elaborate artifacts from this period that have been found in Great Britain and Ireland”. Its style is reminiscent of Stonehenge objects.
The decorated cylinder was found in the graves of three children whose hands were touching. It was placed just above the eldest’s head, along with a ball of chalk and a polished bone needle.
The discovery took place about 384 kilometers from Stonehenge, near the village of Burton Agnes in northern England.
A similar ball and needles were found at and around Stonehenge, suggesting that the peoples of Great Britain and Ireland shared “artistic styles and probably beliefs over considerable distances”, the British Museum said.
The museum’s collection includes three similar drums found in 1889 in a children’s grave about 24 kilometers from the site of the last find.
The three artifacts, known as the Folkton Drums, are among “the most famous and enigmatic ancient objects ever found in excavations in Britain”, the museum said.
They were produced around the same time as the first phase of the construction of Stonehenge, between 3005 and 2890 BC.
