Context (Display)
Old display label reads: 'Crystal ball bound with bronze found by quarrymen below the south barrow compare Burwell & Trumpington'
Event Date
Author: Louise Puckett

Context (Related Documents)
See archive (GO3/7/2) for plans and diary for the excavation of the Cherry Hinton cemetery.

Event Date
Author: Louise Puckett

Context (Display)
Old display label accompanies object 1953.117-124, reads: 'Grave finds from secondary Saxon burials found in 1949 in a Bronze Age barrow. Iron mountings of a wooden bed were found with grave 4. Cherry Hinton. VII - VIII Centuries A.D.' (transcribed by Sarah-Jane Harknett 26/4/2001)
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Related Documents)
A piece of paper with the objects reads: 'RCHM - Cambridge City p. 1 Vol 1 2 poss. barrows (i.e. ring ditches) Chris Houlder dug it in 1949 with Field Club. A) 4 pits within the first ring-ditch, 9 sec. inhum. all A/S. B) Adjoining ring ditch with sec. holes containing grooved ware and EBA sherds in prim. sitting of ditch.' (transcribed by Sarah-Jane Harknett 26/4/2001)
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Field collection)
Was picked up by quarrymen having fallen from a grave in the part of the barrow which had been dug away before the excavations began [in 1949].
Event Date 1949
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Crystal ball with cross strappings and 3 bronze danglers suspended from a loop at the bottom. The cross strappings are engraved with ring and dot ornament

Event Date 9/9/1986
Author: maa

Context (References)
Speake, George. (1989). A Saxon Bed Burial on Swallowcliffe Down. English Heritage Archaeological Report No. 10. London: HBMCE. pp. 101-103

Event Date 1989
Author: Louise Puckett

Description (Physical description)
Sarah-Jane Harknett: 'Part of the crystal ball has been chipped away.'
Event Date 26/4/2001
Author: Louise Puckett

Context (References)
Evans, C., Lucy, S. and Patten, R. (2018). 'Anglo-Saxon Burials and Settlement: The War Ditches Cemetery, Cherry Hinton' in Riversides: Neolithic Barrows, a Beaker Grave, Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon Burials and Settlement at Trumpington, Cambridge. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. pp. 374-381

Event Date 2018
Author: Louise Puckett

Description (Physical description)
Crystal ball, cracked with a large area missing from one side. Bound with four flat strips of copper alloy, decorated with circular punchmarks. The strips of copper alloy cross over at the top and bottom of the ball and are joined by a rivet at the bottom and a loop at the top. Through the loop is a larger loop with three lengths of copper alloy with a circular cross-section. Copper alloy strips broken at the bottom and partly missing on one side. Possibly a pendent for suspension.
Event Date 20/5/2021
Author: Louise Puckett