Bronze Age jewellery restored for the first time in thousands of years

An early Bronze Age necklace and bracelet have been painstakingly restored to their original form by museum experts.

The jewellery will be seen in its original form for the first time in over 4,000 years when it goes on display next month.  

Forty-two jet beads and nine jet ‘plates’ were discovered in a Bronze Age burial at the former Balgay Estate, near Dundee in 1870. 

At the time, the Balgay Estate extended as far as the shoreline of the River Tay.  

For more than a century the loose beads were thought to come from a single piece of jewellery.

But recent research by Dr Alison Sheridan, from National Museums Scotland, has revealed they belong to a matching necklace and bracelet set.

In-depth analysis has allowed conservators to accurately recreate 66 unique missing beads and restore the jewellery in its original Bronze Age formation. 

The plates, which separate the barrel-shaped beads into multiple strands, are decorated with intricate bored dot designs. 

Such craftsmanship indicates that they were valuable pieces. 

The jet itself was an exotic raw material, imported from Yorkshire. Gentle wear on the larger plates shows the jewellery was frequently worn and treasured, most likely by a woman of status.  

‘The painstaking work undertaken by National Museums Scotland researchers and conservators has been truly special and allows us to travel back in time and experience these important Bronze Age objects as they would have been seen thousands of years ago,’ Matthew Knight, Senior Curator of Prehistory at National Museums Scotland said. 

‘Through collaboration with colleagues from Leisure & Culture Dundee, we can now explore the previously untold story of the Balgay burial.’

The jewellery will now go on loan to The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum from National Museums Scotland.

‘We look forward to welcoming the Balgay jet jewellery to Dundee for our museum visitors to see on display for the first time,’ said Christina Donald, Curator of Early History at Leisure and Culture Dundee.

‘Thanks to the expertise and generosity of National Museums Scotland, we can showcase the jewellery and reveal the results of in-depth scientific research to shed light on these important artefacts. 

‘Documentary study by volunteers from Abertay Historical Society and Friends of Balgay Park has also helped us share the story of the re-discovery of this necklace and bracelet more than 100 years ago by the banks of the Tay.’

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