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Bronze shield, 1200–700 BC
Socketed axes from a hoard
Swords found in Scotland
Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c. 2500 until c. 800 BC.
[1]
Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was
in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as the Bronze Age, it was
marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals
to fashion tools. Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture.
During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late
Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites
as Avebury, Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and Must Farm. This has been described as a time "when
elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence
[2]
agriculturalists of western Europe".
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History[edit]
Early Bronze Age (EBA), c. 2500–1500 BC[edit]
There is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and
[3]
Ireland. Some sources give a date as late as 2000 BC, while others set 2200 BC as the
[4]
demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC
has been called the "Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age", in recognition of the difficulty of exactly
[5]
defining this boundary. Some archaeologists recognise a British Chalcolithic when copper was
used between the 25th and 22nd centuries BC, but others do not because production and use
[6]
was on a small scale.
• 2500–2000 BC: Mount Pleasant Phase, Early Beaker culture: ; Britain: copper+tin.
• 2100–1900 BC: Late Beaker: knives, tanged spearheads (Bush Barrow; Overton Period).
• 1800–1600 BC: Fargo Phase (see correction at Bedd Branwen Period); burials.
Middle Bronze Age (MBA), 1500–1000 BC[edit]
• 1500–1300 BC: Acton Park Phase: palstaves, socketed spearheads; copper+tin, also
lead.
• 1300–1200 BC: Knighton Heath Period; "rapiers."
• 1200–1000 BC: Early Urnfield; Wilburton-Wallington Phase.
Late Bronze Age (LBA), 1000–700 BC[edit]
• 1000–900 BC: Late Urnfield: socketed axes, palstaves (also lead).
• 800–700 BC: Ewart Park Phase, Llyn Fawr Phase: leaf-shaped swords.
In Ireland the final Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, but
iron metallurgy does not appear until about 550 BC.
Development[edit]
The Beaker culture[edit]
Movement of Europeans brought new people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth
enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge
indicates that at least some of the new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland. The
Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people and cultural
change was significant. Integration is thought to have been peaceful, as many of the
early henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers.
Also, the burial of dead (which until this period had usually been communal) became more
individual. For example, in the Neolithic era, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to
house the dead. The 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual barrows (also commonly
known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as tumuli), or sometimes
in cists covered with cairns. They were often buried with a beaker alongside the body.
There has been debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the "Beaker people" were a race
of people who migrated to Britain en masse from the continent, or whether a Beaker cultural
"package" of goods and behaviour (which eventually spread across most of Western Europe)
diffused to Britain's existing inhabitants through trade across tribal boundaries. The former
seems incontestable now since a 2017 study showed a major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early
Bronze Age Britain, so that more than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the
[7]
coming of a people genetically similar to the Beaker people of the lower-Rhine area.
Bronze[edit]
The bronze axehead, made by casting, was at first similar to its stone predecessors but then
developed a socket for the wooden handle to fit into, and a small loop or ring to make lashing the
two together easier. Groups of unused axes are often found together, suggesting ritual deposits
to some, though many archaeologists believe that elite groups collected bronze items, perhaps
restricting their use among the wider population. Bronze swords of a graceful "leaf" shape,
swelling gently from the handle before coming to a tip, have been found in considerable
numbers, along with spear heads and arrow points.
Great Britain had large reserves of tin in the areas of Cornwall and Devon in what is now
Southwest England, and thus tin mining began. By around 1600 BC, the southwest of the island
was experiencing a trade boom as British tin was exported across Europe.
Bronze-age Britons were also skilled at making jewellery from gold, as well as occasional objects
like the Rillaton Cup and Mold Cape. Many examples of these have been found in graves of the
wealthy Wessex culture of Southern Britain, though they are not as frequent as Irish finds.
The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in what is now England were discovered in East
Cambridgeshire, where the most important finds were recovered in Isleham (more than 6500
[9]
pieces).
The earliest known metalworking building was found at Sigwells, Somerset, England. Several
casting mould fragments were fitted to a Wilburton type sword held in Somerset County
[10]
Museum. They were found in association with cereal grain dated to the 12th century BC
by carbon dating.
See also[edit]
• Ferriby Boats
• Langdon Bay hoard
• List of Bronze Age hoards in Great Britain
• Copper and Bronze Age Ireland
References[edit]
Footnotes
1. Jump up
^ Adkins, Adkins and Leitch 2008. p. 64.
2. Jump up
^