Most notably, the burial contained the Rillaton Gold Cup, a biconical gold vessel, around 9 cm high, with a handle attached with rivets. The Rillaton Cup and the
Pelynt Dagger are two artefacts that have been found in Cornwall that have been claimed to show contact with the
Mycenaean world. However a 2006 study by Stuart Needham and others sees no reason to look so far afield for parallels, and locates them in a group with other "unstable" cups (round-bottomed and unable to stand up) in precious materials found in north-western Europe. They propose a date around 1700 BC for the Rillaton Cup, though it may have been buried a long time after it was made. In contrast, the Pelynt Dagger might actually be Mycenaean. After their discovery in 1837 the finds were sent as
Duchy Treasure trove to King
William IV, and remained in the royal household. After the death of King
George V in 1936, the importance of the cup and associated dagger came to be appreciated, leading to their loan to the
British Museum, where the cup remains on show next to the similar
Ringlemere Cup, though still belonging to the
Royal Collection. The other objects found with the cup have now disappeared, and "no useful descriptions or depictions are known"; they might well have helped assess the date. A replica of the cup is in the
Royal Cornwall Museum at Truro. A legend associated with the cup is that Rillaton is haunted by the spirit of a druid priest, who offers travellers a drink from an undrainable cup. One night a traveller threw the cup's contents at the ghost, and was later found dead in a ravine. ==Gallery==