According to Live Science, a recent examination of the famous treasure from the burial mound named Upton Lowell and displayed at the Witlshire Museum in Devizes (UK) discovered traces of gold on the surface of the objects.

Treasure trove of “shaman’s burial objects” on display at Witlshire Museum – Photo: Antiquity

The theory that the strange stone objects were the ritual tools of a shaman was quickly discredited. It could have been someone more important to history – a goldsmith, for example.

Given the 4,000-year-old age of the tomb where the mysterious “shaman” was found and the strange cache of funerary objects unearthed, the possibility that he was a goldsmith would be a major milestone in history, suggesting that goldsmithing skills may have developed earlier and to a higher level than previously thought.

The proof of that would be the strangeness of the stone tools, which archaeologists had to admit they did not know what they were, so two centuries ago they assumed they must be mysterious tools used in the rituals of a shaman.

Another hypothesis is that the owner of the strange burial objects may have been an individual representing multiple roles during the early Bronze Age.

The golden discovery – both literally and figuratively – from this museum’s sleeping treasure has just been published in the scientific journal Antiquity ; with a still-mysterious conclusion: “Tomb furniture is more than just an expression of a person’s identity.”