Water offerings and the world of the dead

Ritual offerings
Part of the prehistoric evidence found in the vicinity of Wittenham includes Bronze-Age ritual water offerings of weapons and metalwork. Bronze-Age expert and regular Time Team specialist, Francis Pryor, has a theory about why people made offerings in this way.

'You have to remember that before Iron-Age mirrors, and their more widespread use after the Romans arrived, most people had little idea of what they actually looked like. Water was the only natural resource that reflected an image,' says Francis.

'Water was incredibly significant to the people of the time – it represented life. It was a physical material that you could see yourself in, yet you could also put your hand right through it. The surface and air above it was alive. Under the surface was like death – another world.'

Another world
Francis believes that for Bronze-Age peoples offering items into the water represented a link or portal through to this other world.

'I don't think it was anything like today, when people toss pocket change into a fountain at their local shopping centre. This was much more important,' he says. 'Imagine passing something of very high value into the water. Submerging it and letting it go. You then withdraw your hand back to your world. This would have been a highly significant thing to do.'

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