Museum's bid to keep Bronze Age bracelet in county

A museum is hoping to acquire a Bronze Age bracelet to keep it for research in the county where it was found.

The gold bracelet, dated between 950 and 750 BC, was found in Hilton, Dorset.

The artefact is going through the Treasure process and has been valued at £1,200. Dorset Museum said it had so far raised £720.

It said acquiring "significant" find would help broaden its collection for researchers, displays and learning programmes.

The gold bracelet appears to have been deliberately cut and folded around itself before being put in the ground - an act believed to have some social meaning during the Bronze Age when many metal objects were modified before being deposited.

The museum said it provides evidence that this modification of gold objects continued in Dorset into the late Bronze Age.

It said the bracelet was also significant because the majority of finds of Bronze Age gold and bronze objects have so far been recovered from the north-east of the county, around Cranborne Chase.

Hilton, where the bracelet was discovered, is in the chalk valleys in the centre of the county - an area the museum said was "rich in prehistoric archaeology but less researched and poorly understood".

A spokesperson said: "If we are unable to raise the remaining funds for this item, the item is likely to be sold privately outside of the county, with potential for research on the item lost."

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