A large variety of gravegoods has been found, especially in barrows of an Early Bronze Age date. Amongst the richest were barrows in the immediate area surrounding large monuments such as Stonehenge. finds include pottery, gold and bronze work, beads, exotic stone, faience, bone, and many other types of materials. a small selection of artefacts found in Wessex barrows is illustrated below.

Bronze objects such as these were produced by the lost wax method of casting and then finished by hammering. the axehead and dagger pictured here came from the Ridgeway barrow in Dorset. They belong to the Wessex 1 phase and date from the period 2000-1800 BC. Awls are another common bronze find.

Gold is a relatively rare find. the collection to the right was unearthed at Upton Lovell in 1803.The individual pieces (other than the beads) are made from very thin goldfoil and mounted on wood. The ornamentation is very finely engraved. All pieces are likely to have been made by the same person. The find dates to c. 2000-1700 BC

People of the Early Bronze Age made incredibly intricate jewellery, not only from amber (as pictured right), but also from many other materials including  jet, shale, bone and gold. The large beads are called spacers and served to give the necklace its overall shape. Much of the raw material was foreign to the area and must have been traded for.

Faience, often described as a primitive form of glass, strictly speaking is a vitreous glaze applied over a core of sand or clay. the technique was probably discovered by Egyptian potters who were amongst the first to experiment with glazes. The first faience beads in Wessex were likely to have been traded for, although it is now thought that the technique was soon adopted by local craftspeople. The production of faience requires high firing temperatures and some form of kiln, although these were likely to have been very small and temporary, probably producing only a few beads at a time.