The Ringlemere Gold Cup is an ancient Bronze Age artifact unearthed at Ringlemere Barrow near Sandwich in Kent, England, in 2001.
This cup was crafted from a single piece of gold, featuring a handle made from a flat gold band attached with rivets. Although it has been heavily damaged due to plowing in recent times, its original height was approximately 14 centimeters, and it had corrugated walls. The cup's design resembles that of late Neolithic ceramic tumblers, dating back to around 2300 BC, complete with corded pottery decorations. However, the Ringlemere Gold Cup actually belongs to a much later period.
It is believed that this cup was not used as a burial item but rather served as a separate sacrificial offering, placed at the center of the burial mound around 1700-1500 BC. Interestingly, no modern burials have been discovered at the site, although later Iron Age burials and a Saxon cemetery have been found nearby.
There are only seven known examples of such gold "cups with unstable handles" (the instability is due to their rounded bottoms) in Europe, and they all date back to the period between 1700 and 1500 BC. The Ringlemere Gold Cup bears a strong resemblance to another British specimen, the Rillaton Gold Cup, discovered in Cornwall in 1837. Other examples have been found in Germany and Switzerland, with one now lost from Brittany and another, possibly of German origin, that has received less attention. Additionally, there are two silver cups and two amber cups, as well as several slate cups from Britain, which share a similar basic shape, as seen in the Hove's Amber Cup. These discoveries in Britain and on the continent, particularly in the Wessex region and near the Rhine or Channel coast, suggest that these objects were likely part of a cross-trade network, possibly transported by ships from various localities to the sites where they were discovered.
