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The Early Bronze Age

Early British metal working of Copper and Bronze

Appox. 2,300 BC to 1,200 BC

It is believed that the beginning of the Bronze Age in Britain was brought about by the arrival of a new immigrant culture from central Europe. These tribes are known as the Beaker People being identified by their unique pottery as shown in the example to the right found in West Kennet Long Barrow, Wiltshire.

It was these Beaker People who were responsible for the proliferation of Round Barrows in which many examples of their domestic pottery, tools and weapons have been found including pottery jars, brooches and buckles made from gold, bronze daggers, cups, necklaces, and personal adornments made from various stones and precious materials.

The placing of grave goods seems to confirm they maintained a belief in the afterlife and as burial sites are also grouped around henges and stone circles there was also present a complex system of belief/religion. Stone monuments existed long before the arrival of these people but it was during the Bronze Age that they reached their zenith.

It is also possible that a realisation of astronomy came about during this period. Many of the henges and monoliths are aligned to the patterns of the rising or setting sun, or more particularly, the moon. As to whether these alignments have other meanings is likely to be never fully understood but as even the position and orientation of their burials also correlate with the same alignments displayed by the henges one cannot believe that this is a coincidence.

The nature of life also changed during the Early Bronze Age, gone was the pastoral, community based existence of the Neolithic Period to be replaced by a society that had more in common with modern times. It is thought that Bronze Age society was patriarchal but without question there was a definite social order with chiefs at the top and probably slaves at the bottom. With nearly all social orders comes conflict and we know from the wounds found on Bronze Age human remains that these were a warlike people. In some instances skeletal remains have been found with arrowheads, spearheads and knives still within them.

The climatic conditions in Britain in the Early Bronze Age is thought to have been drier and a lot warmer that that which we experience today which may explain the influx of the Beaker Peoples during this time. However by 1,200 BC the climate began to change to a much wetter environment. It is this factor that explains many of the culture changes that happen in the Late Bronze Age.