7/24/2019 The Rillaton Gold Cup

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Gold Cup Tuan Nguyen

As a part of the research for this module, I visited the

British Museum website and found this exceptional gold

vessel. The Rillaton cup was named as one of Britains top

ten treasures.! according to The modern anti"uarian website.

It was discovered in #$%& b' construction wor(ers in a burialcairn at Bodmin Moor. Although little is (nown about how

the round)bottomed cup was buried or where the gold was

mined, it is clear that the cup was buried with someone of

great wealth and power. After its discover', the cup became

lost but turned up 'ears later in the dressing room of *ing

+eorge as a receptacle for his collar studs.

The cup was made some time between 1700 to 1500 BCin Rillaton, -ornwall, ngland.

The main bod' of the cup was poundedout of a single lump of gold of high purit'. These are

some of the dimensions of the cup/ 85 mm in height, 85 mm in diameter, and it weights 766g. The Rillaton gold cup is instanced as an example of the lin(s between the Aegean and the

0orth in the fifteenth centur' B.-.The close concentric)circle designs, popular in the Irish 1ate

Bron2e Age, are given as derived from 3enmar( and south 4weden, and the authors further

note that imported amber appears in Ireland about the same time! 564T7R8

Ringlemere Cup (left) and Rillaton Cup (right) are two of the

only examples of corrugated Bronze Age gold cups.

The Rillaton +old -up is still belongs to the Ro'al -ollection. An exact cop' ma' beseen in the Ro'al -ornwall Museum at Truro. In 9::& there have been calls in the local

-ornish press for the Rillaton +old -up to be returned to the -ornwall from the British

Museum.

!e"eren#es$

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