Gathering Light, Sunderland Museum & Art Gallery
Exquisitely made, the 3,000-year-old gold Shropshire Sun Pendant is decorated with elaborately incised geometric patterns on both sides and round the edge. When lifted by the wearer, the patterns appear like the halo and rays of the sun at sunrise. The pendant is a find of international importance connecting the lives of communities across Ireland, Britain and France. Its unique beauty reveals the immense skill of local or travelling goldsmiths. The form and decoration indicate the rising sun and its daily journey through the sky, perhaps a metaphor for hope, continuity, and the passage of human life. Throwing the pendant in a pond was probably a hard sacrifice, perhaps intended to repay or seek protection from nature or ancestral spirits,
