BRONZE AGE BRITAIN AND IRELAND

FOLLOWED BY FEATURE ESSAYS ON:

Stonehenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Flag Fen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Irish Bronze Age Goldwork . . . . . . . . . . . 69

In Britain and Ireland the beginning of the Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of metalworking, new burial practices, and an increase in trade and exchange. What is significant about these developments is their social impact: they facilitated the emergence of hierarchical societies in which social difference was marked out through the ownership and display of bronze artifacts and other exotic objects.

mining and metalworking

The earliest evidence for metalworking in the British Isles can be dated to c. 2500 b.c. This technology was introduced from the Continent, possibly via contacts with the Low Countries. At first, unalloyed copper was used to create a limited range of simple tools, weapons, and ornaments. These included such items as flat axes, knives, halberds, and rings. Unalloyed copper is a relatively soft metal, however, and tools and weapons made from this material will blunt quickly. By c. 2200 b.c., metalworkers had learned to alleviate this problem by mixing tin with copper to create bronze. Bronze is a harder metal consisting of approximately 90–95 percent copper and 5–10 percent tin.

Sources of both copper and tin were known and used in the British Isles in the Bronze Age. Copper is found in southwest Ireland, Wales, and the northwest of Scotland, and major sources of tin are located in southwest England. During the Bronze Age it is likely that tin was panned from river gravels, a process that does not leave traces in the archaeological record; our evidence for the exploitation of tin during this period is scanty. Copper, however, was mined, and several Bronze Age copper mines have been identified. In southwest Ireland the copper mines at Ross Island and Mount Gabriel have produced evidence for activity spanning much of the Early Bronze Age (c. 2200–1650 b.c.).

A series of short shafts following veins of mineralized rock into the hillside have been identified at these sites. Stone mauls, wooden picks, and wooden shovels were recovered from the mines at Mount Gabriel, providing evidence for the kinds of tools that would have been used. Once the ore had been won from the rock face and brought to the surface, it was crushed and sorted, allowing the most visibly mineralized pieces to be separated from waste material. The ore was then smelted. No evidence for kilns has been identified at either Mount Gabriel or Ross Island, however, and it is likely that simple bowl furnaces (shallow scoops in the ground lined with clay) were employed for this purpose. Mining does not seem to have been carried out on an industrial scale. Calculations indicate that the mines at Mount Gabriel would have produced little more than 15–20 kilograms of copper per year. It seems likely that mining was seasonal work carried out by small groups of people, perhaps at quiet times in the agricultural cycle.

Evidence for the casting of bronze objects is provided by molds, crucibles, and bronze waste. High-status settlements, such as Runnymede in Surrey, have produced particular concentrations of metalworking debris, suggesting that elite groups might have controlled the production of bronze. Stone, ceramic, and metal molds have all been identified. The earliest molds are of one piece, although two-piece molds were introduced by c. 1700 b.c. These molds facilitated the production of more complex and varied forms of bronze objects, including socketed implements. Over time, innovations in bronzeworking facilitated the production of an array of new types of artifact. Such tools as chisels, hammers, gouges, punches, and sickles became common during the Middle Bronze Age (1650–1200 b.c.). Developments in weaponry include spearheads, which appeared at the end of the Early Bronze Age, and swords, which were introduced by c. 1200 b.c. By the Late Bronze Age (1200–700 b.c.), the presence of highly complex and finely crafted items of sheet metal, such as cauldrons, horns, and shields, may indicate the existence of full-time specialist bronzesmiths.

trade and exchange

Because of the localized distribution of sources of copper and tin, most communities were reliant on trade to acquire metal. The importance of bronze to the Bronze Age economy resulted in a marked increase in the scale of trading activities during this period. Lead isotope analysis of metal objects shows that Ross Island was the main source of copper used throughout the British Isles during much of the Early Bronze Age, although in later centuries communities in southern Britain became more dependent on imported scrap metal from the Continent. Other materials that have been traced to particular sources include amber from the Baltic and jet from east Yorkshire; both materials were used widely for the production of ornaments in Britain and Ireland. Finished items also were exchanged over long distances. For example, a Middle Bronze Age axe from Bohemia was found at Horridge Common in Devon, and a hoard of bronzes from Dieskau in eastern Germany included an Irish axe of Early Bronze Age date. During the Late Bronze Age evidence for the production of salt at sites near the coast, such as Mucking North Ring in Essex, indicates that staples were exchanged alongside prestige goods. Ideas also traveled. Similarities in the pottery styles used in different areas suggest significant interregional contacts. For example, bowl food vessels from Ireland, southwest Scotland, the Isle of Man, and southwest Wales are extremely similar stylistically, although petrographic analysis argues that they were manufactured from local clays in each region.

There is good evidence for the movement of goods and people by both land and sea. Significant deforestation occurred during the Bronze Age, so that travel by land perhaps became easier than it had been during the preceding Neolithic period. Wooden trackways were constructed to facilitate passage across marshy or boggy land. Some of these were light structures, built purely for small-scale traffic on foot. Others were more substantial and would have been able to accommodate wheeled transport. It is during the Late Bronze Age that the first evidence for wheeled vehicles is found in Britain and Ireland, for example, the block wheel from Doogarymore, County Roscommon. Knowledge of horse riding also spread into these islands at this time, although this activity may have been restricted to high-status people. For example, antler cheekpieces (parts of horse bridles) tend to be found at wealthy settlement sites, such as Runnymede in Surrey.

Over longer distances waterborne transport was a vital means of communication. Dugout canoes fashioned from single oak trunks provided a suitable mode of transport in estuarine and riverine contexts. Seagoing plank-built boats also are known, for instance, from North Ferriby, North Humber-side (fig. 1). Occasionally, shipwrecks give vivid insight into the cargo of such vessels. At Langdon Bay near Dover a cluster of more than three hundred bronze objects was found some 500 meters offshore, although the ship itself had not survived. Many of the items recovered were French, providing


evidence for the importation of goods into Britain from abroad.

Although the Langdon Bay shipwreck hints at large-scale and highly organized trading ventures, commercial exchange as we know it today is unlikely to have existed during the Bronze Age. There is little evidence for the presence of a specialist merchant class, for dedicated marketplaces, or for early forms of currency. Instead, most goods would have changed hands as gifts between neighbors, kinsfolk, or chiefly elites—perhaps to forge new friendships or to cement long-standing alliances.

burial practices

During the Early Bronze Age, the communal mortuary monuments of the Neolithic were replaced by traditions of individual burial with grave goods. Although single burials of Late Neolithic date are known, it was during the Early Bronze Age that this form of mortuary rite became widespread across much of Britain and Ireland. Funerary practices at this time seem to have been greatly influenced by developments abroad. In many parts of continental western Europe, the so-called Beaker burial rite had become the dominant mortuary tradition by the middle of the third millennium b.c. This rite appears to have been introduced into the British Isles, probably via the Low Countries, around 2500 b.c.

Beaker burials are so called because the dead were accompanied by a pottery beaker, or drinking-vessel, of a distinctive S-shaped profile. Other characteristic grave goods include copper knives and daggers; archer's equipment, such as stone wrist guards and barbed-and-tanged arrowheads made of flint; stone battle-axes; antler "spatulas" (probably used to produce flint tools); and buttons of jet or shale. Usually, the dead were inhumed, their bodies laid on their sides with their legs and arms drawn up, as if asleep. The precise positioning of the body in the grave evidently was important. In northeast Scotland, for example, men were placed on their left sides, with their heads pointing to the east. Women, however, were laid on their right sides, with their heads oriented to the west. In some cases wooden mortuary houses were erected over the graves.

Beaker burials have produced some of the earliest metal items known from these islands. In the past archaeologists believed that these burials indicated the immigration or invasion of a large group of Beaker folk from abroad, who brought with them the new metalworking technology. Current theories, however, stress that although there is likely to have been small-scale movement of people during this period, knowledge of Beaker mortuary rites probably was acquired through preexisting networks of trade and exchange. For elite groups in the British Isles individual burial with exotic artifacts, such as copper knives, represented an appealing new way of expressing personal status.

Once the practice of individual burial with grave goods had been introduced, local variants of this form of mortuary rite were quick to emerge. In Ireland, for example, very few Beaker burials are known. Instead, single burials were accompanied by indigenous forms of pottery, such as food vessels. Toward the end of the Early Bronze Age, inhumation was replaced by cremation as the dominant mortuary practice. The cremated remains of the dead were collected from the pyre and placed in a ceramic vessel, such as a collared urn or cordoned urn.

Both inhumation and cremation burials were accompanied by grave goods indicative of the social status of the deceased person. The wealthiest Early Bronze Age burials included not only copper or bronze objects, such as daggers and awls, but also ornaments, decorative fittings, and small items of exotic materials, such as amber, jet, faience, and gold. These rich burials have been termed "Wessex burials," after a region of southern England in which there is a particular concentration. Rich graves are found elsewhere, too. For example, the cremation burial from Little Cressingham, Norfolk, produced two bronze daggers, an amber necklace, a rectangular gold plate with incised decoration, and four other small decorative fittings of gold, including a possible pommel mount for one of the daggers. Such wealthy burials may indicate the presence of a chiefly class whose status depended at least in part on their ability to acquire prestige goods through exchange.

Round barrows and round cairns were the dominant form of mortuary monument during the Early Bronze Age. Although the mounds raised over Beaker burials usually were small, by the later part of the Early Bronze Age, large and elaborate barrows were being constructed. These barrows could be up to 40 meters in diameter and often were built in several phases. Some have lengthy histories of construction and appear to have been enlarged over successive generations. In many parts of Britain barrows cluster together into cemeteries. Linear arrangements of barrows in such areas as the Dorset Ridgeway hint at the importance of genealogical succession in Early Bronze Age society; the relative positioning of different barrows within a barrow cemetery may have been a means of expressing kinship relationships.

Not all burials were provided with such a marker, however. Some were left unmarked by any form of monument, whereas others were inserted into preexisting mounds. Within individual barrows or cairns archaeologists often distinguish between "primary" and "secondary" burials, that is, between the interment over which the mound originally was raised (the primary burial) and burials that were inserted into the mound at a later point (secondary burials). It has been suggested that people interred in secondary positions within a monument were not of sufficient importance to have a barrow or cairn constructed for them alone. Alternatively, such people may have wished to underscore their links with significant ancestors buried in preexisting monuments.

During the Middle Bronze Age cremation was the dominant mode of treatment of the dead. In some cases burials were grouped together into small, flat cemeteries. Elsewhere, they were inserted into earlier barrows or had their own small, simple mound raised over them. Grave goods accompanied few burials during this period. Some archaeologists see this change in funerary rites as indicating the collapse of Early Bronze Age chiefdoms. It is more likely, however, that status was simply expressed in a different way outside the mortuary arena. During the Late Bronze Age burial rites become archaeologically invisible, and we do not know how the bodies of the dead were disposed of. The discovery of unburned, disarticulated, and fragmentary human bone on settlement sites, however, may hint that exposure to the elements became the normal mode of mortuary treatment during this period.

settlements

Bronze Age settlements in Britain and Ireland generally were small in scale. There is no evidence for the construction of hamlets or villages. Instead, the settlement pattern is predominantly one of scattered farmsteads, each providing a home for a single nuclear or small extended family group. In most areas the dominant house form was the roundhouse, circular in shape and usually some 6–12 meters in diameter. A central ring of stout timber posts gave support to a thatched roof. The walls were constructed of wattle and daub, although in many upland areas, stone was used. The doorway usually faced east or southeast and often was protected by a porch structure (fig. 2). Hut 3 at Black Patch in Sussex provides interesting evidence for the internal spatial arrangement of activities. A hearth located toward the front of the building was the focus for a range of craft activities. At the back of the house were a number of storage pits as well as a line of loom weights, which may indicate the original location of an upright weaving loom.

Most Bronze Age settlements comprise several roundhouses set within an enclosure formed by lengths of bank, ditch, and palisade. Analysis of the distribution of finds indicates that settlements included a main residential structure along with one or more ancillary structures. The latter provided specialized working areas for a variety of tasks, as well as storage facilities and housing for animals.

The settlement at Black Patch is a good example. At this site five roundhouses were set within small yards defined by lines of fencing. The main residential structure was hut 3, which contains evidence for such activities as the serving and consumption of food, storage of grain, leatherworking, and cloth production. A large number of cooking vessels, along with quern stones and animal bone, were recovered from hut 1, suggesting that this was an area dedicated to food preparation. Both hut 3 and hut 1 had their own water sources, in the form of a small pond. Hut 4 produced evidence for a combination of the activities carried out in huts 3 and 1, but this structure did not have its own pond, hinting that it may have been the home of a dependent relative of the household head, perhaps a younger sibling or elderly parent. Huts 2 and 5 produced few artifacts and may have been used as shelters for animals. The excavator, Peter Drewett, suggested that there may have been a gendered aspect to the use of space at this site. A razor was found in hut 3, the main residential structure, and two finger rings were recovered from hut 1, the cooking hut. Drewett argues that these finds indicate a male head of household whose wife had her own hut.

During the Late Bronze Age, there is increasing evidence for the development of settlement hierarchies. Hillforts began to be constructed during this period, hinting at the large-scale mobilization of labor for certain projects. Some of these sites appear to have had high-status inhabitants. The hillfort known as Haughey's Fort, in County Armagh, Ireland, was occupied between c. 1100 and 900 b.c. Three concentric ditches enclosed an area of about 340 by 310 meters, inside of which were located several very substantial timber structures. The site produced several small decorative articles of gold, among them, a stud, pieces of wire, and fragments of sheet gold, as well as glass beads and bracelets of bronze and lignite.

In southern England, a category of very rich midden sites can be identified during this period. At Potterne in Wiltshire, a 2-meter-thick deposit of refuse covering approximately 3.5 hectares hints at large gatherings of people at certain times of the year. Much of this midden consisted of cattle dung, barn waste, and domestic refuse, although the site also produced 186 bronze objects, along with decorative items of antler, jet, shale, amber, gold, and glass. Analysis of the animal bones and ceramics recovered attest that feasting activities were carried out on a large scale at Potterne. The accumulation of such large middens may in itself have been an indicator of social status, providing physical evidence for the keeping of large herds of animals, feasting, and craft production.

In eastern England a lower level in the settlement hierarchy may be indicated by a class of sites known as ringworks, or ringforts. These are small, defended settlements enclosed by a circular bank and ditch. They have produced copious evidence for craft-working activities, such as the production of bronze objects; salt; and cloth, although "exotic"


materials, such as amber, gold, or glass, generally are not found on these sites.

the economy

Bronze Age farmers practiced mixed agriculture. Cattle and sheep or goats were the most important domestic animals, although pigs also were kept. At some sites horses were present, but usually in very small numbers. Over time there was an increase in the relative proportion of sheep to cattle. The recovery of large numbers of spindle whorls and loom weights from Middle and Late Bronze Age settlements suggests that sheep generally were kept for their wool rather than their meat. Wheat and barley were the main cereals grown, and peas, beans, and lentils also were cultivated. During the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, several new crops were introduced, including spelt wheat, rye, and flax; the latter was a source of fiber and oil. Agricultural implements, such as digging sticks, hoes, and ards, probably were manufactured from wood and therefore rarely survive, although during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, bronze sickles became relatively common. Ard marks are known from several sites, most famously, Gwithian in Cornwall.

Bronze Age field systems have been identified in several regions. On Dartmoor in Devon a series of field systems covering thousands of hectares of land were constructed around the fringes of the moor. These systems appear to have been carefully laid out during a single planned phase of expansion into the uplands around 1700 b.c. The boundaries themselves were built of earth and stone and enclose rectilinear fields of varying sizes. Individual boundaries can be up to several kilometers in length. Within each field system, roundhouses, droveways, cairns, and other features can be identified. The roundhouses were not distributed evenly among the various parcels of land, however, but were clustered together into "neighborhood groups," suggesting a communal pattern of landholding. The large-scale, organized, and cohesive nature of land division on Dartmoor has suggested to some researchers that a centralized political authority must have been responsible for the planning and construction of the boundaries, although the possibility of intercommunity cooperation also has been raised.

In other parts in Britain and Ireland rather different forms of land enclosure can be identified. On the East Moors of the Peak District, for example, small field systems 1–25 hectares in area have been identified. These systems comprise groups of irregular fields of broadly curvilinear form. In contrast to the situation on Dartmoor, such individual field systems were not laid out during a single phase of construction but seem to have grown and developed over time, with new plots enclosed as the need arose. Their scale suggests that they probably represent the landholdings of individual families or household groups. As on Dartmoor, however, the development of new forms of land management may indicate the intensification of agricultural production.

hoards

Although settlements and burials sometimes produce bronze objects, the vast majority of Bronze Age metalwork has been recovered either as single finds—unassociated with any other artifacts—or as part of a larger collection (a hoard) of metalwork buried in the ground or deposited in a river, lake, or bog. Metalwork deposited in wetland contexts would not have been easily recoverable, and such finds can be interpreted as a form of sacrifice to gods, spirits, or ancestors. Votive offerings of this type often include particularly fine metalwork. For example, in the Dowris hoard from County Offaly there were bronze buckets, cauldrons, horns, and swords along with many other items, all found in an area of reclaimed bog in the 1820s. More than two hundred items were recovered. It seems unlikely that all of these items were deposited as part of a single event. Rather, they may be the material remains of periodic ceremonies at a location that was visited repeatedly over a long period of time. Richard Bradley has made the point that the act of throwing fine metalwork into a river, lake, or bog would have been highly ostentatious and would have enhanced the status of those persons who could afford to sacrifice such valuable items.

In comparison, items buried or hidden in dry-land contexts would have been easier to recover. These finds usually are explained in utilitarian terms. Collections of worn, broken, or miscast bronzes often are interpreted as "smiths' hoards"—scrap metal accumulated for recycling into new artifacts. This type of hoard can include ingots, waste metal, and fragments of crucibles and molds. At Petters Sports Field in Surrey, seventy-eight bronze objects, among them, numerous broken items and other scrap metal, were buried in two small pits cut into the upper silts of a Late Bronze Age ditch. This material had been sorted carefully: the size and composition of the scrap metal from each of these deposits was different, suggesting that the two collections had been intended for recycling into different types of object.

Some dryland hoards have produced several identical items, perhaps cast from the same mold, along with objects that do not appear to have been used. Such hoards often have been interpreted as "merchant's hoards"—the stock of a trader who, for one reason or another, was unable to recover this material from its hiding place. Other hoards consist of a single set of tools or ornaments probably belonging to one person. For example, the Mount-rivers hoard from County Cork comprised two socketed axes, a bronze penannular bracelet, a string of amber beads, and two gold dress fasteners. The owners of such "personal hoards" may have hidden them for safekeeping in times of unrest.

society and politics

Many archaeologists have argued that the appearance of rich individual burials during the Early Bronze Age indicates an increase in social stratification. Burials accompanied by items of gold, amber, faience, and the like may signify the emergence of a chiefly class. Undoubtedly, the development of metalworking and the associated increase in trade and exchange played a significant role. Metal, an eye-catching and adaptable material, provided novel ways of displaying personal status. Control over the distribution of prestige goods and the materials from which they were produced would have facilitated the accumulation of wealth by particular people.

Rich burials had disappeared by the end of the Early Bronze Age. This does not indicate a return to a more egalitarian political order, however. High-quality metalwork continued to be produced. During the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, it was deposited into rivers, lakes, and bogs as part of the conspicuous consumption of wealth by high-status persons. The Late Bronze Age saw the development of a distinct settlement hierarchy. High-status settlements, such as Runnymede in Surrey, furnish copious evidence for metalworking and other craft activities, as well as exotic items imported from distant parts of Britain and beyond, indicating that control over production and exchange continued to be important.

See alsoTrackways and Boats (vol. 1, part 4); Stonehenge (vol. 2, part 5).

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Joanna BrÜc