Heart of Cornwall

Rare Early Bronze Age Lunulae, found in Harlyn Bay, St Merryn. Most Lunalae are found in Ireland, this one is unusual as it is made of Cornish gold through identification of traces of tin in the gold.

Grotesque from St Piran's Oratory, a small chapel on the sand dunes above Perranporth, the location where where St Piran was said to have landed on his granite millstone from Ireland. It's over a 1000 years old and was found in 1838.

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, currency was scarce and many firms had trouble bringing enough in to pay their employees. So, firms began to issue their own promissory notes, tokens, and pennies to pay employees that were widely accepted by workmen and local suppliers.

A congregation of beads found on the shipwreck of the Mosel, it can be found in our Migration & Mobility cabinet in the Heart of Cornwall Gallery

Arrowheads excavated from the Neolithic site at Carn Brea (near Redruth). They were likely crafted locally and used to defend a settlement site on Carn Brea Tor.

Base-silver stater example of an Armorican-type coin. Believed to be from either the Channel Islands or the Cotentin region (north-western area of France), the only one of its kind to be found in Cornwall.

These gold coins were found washed up on Praa Sands beach in around 2004, 13 Spanish, one Italian and one English from the 1400's, thought to have come from the shipwreck of Le Kateryn Van.

Hurling ball with decorative trim

17th century leather tyg used as a drinking vessel. Having multiple handles meant that the cup could be easily passed around the group, which was particularly useful for hot drinks. Tyg's have become commonly associated with Wassailing.

If you're heading to the beach at Marazion today, consider that in the middle stone age or Mesolithic period, the shore was much further out. Instead of beach and shoreline, there was forest between Marazion and St Michael's Mount.

A dried moss, Emily Stackhouse variety, in the Herbarium Volume

Copper alloy bowl about 2000 years old, found at Higher Youlton Farm near Bodmin. The bowl is decorated with an inverted stylised ram’s head mounted on the side. Rams feature prominently in iron age and roman decoration around the world, but we don’t get much roman archaeology in Cornwall.

Part of the original labatory equipment of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, this apparatus was used to demonstrate static electricity. The metal house would light up with electricty created by an electrostatic machine that was then stored in Leyden jars.

Custom Officer’s Cane from the 1700s. Smuggling first became an economic necessity because of the high duty on salt imported from Brittany. Inside is a pointy sword, earning this secret weapon the name ‘swordstick’.

Hand carved shell

A dried fern, Hamilton Davy variety, in the Herbarium Volume

Pair of penannular copper alloy arm rings are roughly 3,000 years old! They were worn tightly on the upper arms of men and women to show their status and wealth. Discovered inside a barrow at Peninnis Head, St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly in 1851 dating back to the mid-Bronze Age.

This ornament of a clenched hand, made from local stone, was possibly placed above the entrance gate of a fort to symbolise Roman power over the surrounding local people. It was found in the stream below Nanstallon, near Bodmin, in 1964 and is dated AD 50-70s.