Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
Our interpretation of Bronze Age metalwork is based, for the most part, on common-sense ideas of what is functional and what is not, which items were intended to be recovered, which were gifts to other worlds. A more considered source of analogy than our limited experience is available at a certain distance. Remote in terms of measured miles, the analogy is nevertheless effective in expanding current definitions of how ritual is expressed through material culture.