A RARE 3,000-year-old sun pendant found in the Shropshire Marches is set to go on public display this week.

The sun pendant, known as a bulla, will be displayed at Shropshire Council’s Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery from Friday, September 10 as part of the British Museum’s National Programmes.

It is the only example of a British bulla that the museum currently has, and is believed to be the most significant piece of Bronze Age gold metalwork found in over a century in Britain.

Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for communities, place, tourism and transport, described the sun pendant as an incredible find of huge importance.

She said: “We are delighted that this item, which is 3,000 years old, will go on show to the public for the first time at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

“This is an exceptionally rare depiction of the sun and undoubtedly one of the most significant finds from the Bronze Age in more than a century.

“As it was discovered in the Shropshire Marches, it is fitting that Shropshire should be chosen by the British Museum to display it.

“We are delighted that it will be hosted in the wonderful Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, and I am sure it will be a very popular attraction.”

Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery will be fundraising to acquire other finds close to the findspot, including a unique lead gold-ring parcel and an axe which has the potential to date the transition from Bronze Age to Iron Age.

Shropshire Museums are hoping to crowdfund the £40,000 needed to be able to acquire other historically significant objects unearthed from the findspot to help tell the complete story of ancient Shropshire.

These include an exceptionally rare jewellery parcel wrapped by lead, believed to be one of the first records of using this material, and hoards which have the potential to date the transition between Bronze and Iron Ages.

The sun pendant it is evidence of the importance of the sun in people’s beliefs and cosmology during this period.

It will be displayed at the museum until December 12, 2021, as a British Museum Spotlight Loan “Gathering light: A Bronze Age golden sun”.

Discovered in the Shropshire Marches in May 2018 by a metal detector user who remains anonymous, nothing like the sun pendant has been found in this country for over a century.

It dates back to between 1,000–800BC in the late Bronze Age period.