The shifting relationship between the British Isles and Continental Europe during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages will be revealed at Stonehenge tomorrow (Friday 12 October) as part of a new English Heritage exhibition curated in partnership with the British Museum. From a highly prized 6500-year-old jade axe to an elaborate gold neckpiece made around 4000 years ago, the stunning artefacts on display in Making Connections will highlight different periods of connection and relative isolation between the ancient British Isles and mainland Europe. 

In the late Neolithic period when Stonehenge was built, communities living in the British Isles appear to have been insular; and although people were travelling widely and exchanging ideas from Orkney to Southern England, there was little or no communication with Continental Europe. Whereas, both before and after the time of Stonehenge, in the early Neolithic and the early Bronze Age, mass migrations of people - the first farmers and the earliest metal-workers – took place.  At these times, objects, styles and religious beliefs were being shared widely with Continental Europe, and recent DNA analysis indicates that the Beaker culture which brought Bronze Age technology to the British Isles 4,500 years ago, was part of a migration that almost completely replaced the communities of the British Isles in the course of a few centuries.  

The new exhibition at Stonehenge – Making Connections – opens with an exquisite jade axe, on loan from the British Museum, representing very early connections and shared ideas, beliefs and communication.  Made of stone sourced in the Italian Alps, polished for hundreds of hours and brought to the British Isles from Continental Europe 1,500 years before Stonehenge was built, the Alpine jade blade was a treasured token connecting people back to their homelands. 

The ensuing period of separation from Continental Europe is represented by the Folkton Drums. These three chalk cylinders are intricately decorated with spirals, lozenges and stylized faces and date from the late Neolithic period (c.3000BC) and were found with the burial of a child in Folkton, North Yorkshire. This style of decoration is known from megalithic monuments, pottery and other portable objects across the British Isles but not further afield.

A copper alloy ‘sun disc’ dating from 1500–1300 BC, believed to have been part of a model chariot pulled by a divine horse, has recently been rediscovered in the British Museum store. It goes on display for the first time in living memory and illustrates a renewed phase of connections. The disc, found in Ireland, is of a type otherwise only known from Continental Europe and it shows that Bronze Age beliefs about how the sun and moon moved across the sky were shared by people living in both the British Isles and Europe.   Also on display is the remarkable 4000-year-old Blessington gold lunula, an intricately incised, beaten-gold crescent neckpiece, which shows that by 2000BC people were regularly exchanging precious metals over long distances. 

Susan Greaney, English Heritage Historian, said: "From insular communities with what appears to be little outside communication, to mass migrations and the sharing of raw materials and finished artefacts, our ancestors have been making and breaking relationships with Continental Europe for thousands of years.  Throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age, Stonehenge stood at the centre of this constantly changing ebb and flow of objects, styles, people and ideas. 

"This exciting partnership with the British Museum has given us the opportunity to showcase these connections through some beautiful objects, displayed together for the first time at Stonehenge, which help to set the site in its wider European context. It has also provided us with an invaluable opportunity to reunite the early Bronze Age carvings on the surfaces of Stonehenge with the objects – the Arreton axe and copper dagger - that inspired them. Being able to bring these objects back to Stonehenge highlights the value of our collaboration with the British Museum." 

Neil Wilkin, British Museum Curator, said: "To be able to bring all these objects together for the first time at Stonehenge, one of the most important symbols of ancient Britain, is an exciting prospect. The stories of Stonehenge and the British Museum are interwoven, and Stonehenge has formed an important part of the displays at the British Museum for as long as records and memory permits. It is, therefore, a dream come true to display objects from the Age of Stonehenge so close to the monument. Thanks to invaluable loans from Wiltshire Museum and Salisbury Museum it’s also been possible to highlight the incredible depth of their collections for telling both local and international stories. Together with colleagues at English Heritage, we’ve been able to trace ancient and modern connections between people and places through beautiful objects that we hope will stimulate and enchant."

The spectacular Neolithic and Bronze Age objects from the British Museum collections are displayed alongside artefacts borrowed from other lenders, including a Langdale axe from Wiltshire Museum, two carved chalk plaques from Salisbury Museum, and a Grooved Ware pot from Down Farm Museum in Dorset.

The exhibition is one of many highlights of the year in which English Heritage is marking an important anniversary for Stonehenge. One hundred years ago, in 1918, local couple Cecil and Mary Chubb gifted the monument to the nation. This public spirited decision marked a turning point in the history of Stonehenge as a much needed programme of restoration began almost immediately, starting a century of research, care and conservation at Stonehenge which continues to this day.  Throughout 2018, English Heritage is celebrating the centenary of the gift, and is inviting people to join them at the stones on Friday 26 October 2018 and over that weekend for a few days full of celebration and surprises, orchestrated by the Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller.  

Making Connections: Stonehenge in its Prehistoric World opens to the public on 12 October 2018 and will run until 21 April 2019. Admission is included in the Stonehenge ticket price.  For more information, visit: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge