Bronze Age Britain

Geographical range	British Isles
Period	Bronze Age
Dates	c. 2200 —c. 800 BC
Preceded by	Bell Beaker culture,Neolithic British Isles
Followed by	Atlantic Bronze Age,Iron Age Britain

Bronze Age Britain is an era ofBritish history that spanned fromc. 2500–2000 BC untilc. 800 BC.[1] Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era ofNeolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period ofIron Age Britain. Being categorised as theBronze Age, it was marked by the use ofcopper and thenbronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools.Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption ofagriculture.

During the British Bronze Age, largemegalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites asAvebury,Stonehenge,Silbury Hill andMust Farm. That has been described as a time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe".^[2]

There is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give a date as late as 2000 BC,^[3] and others set 2200 BC as the demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.^[4] The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC has been called the "Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age" in recognition of the difficulty of exactly defining the boundary.^[5] Some archaeologists recognise a British Chalcolithic when copper was used between the 25th and the 22nd centuries BC, but others do not because production and use were on a small scale.^[6][7]

• 2500–2000 BC:Mount Pleasant Phase, EarlyBell Beaker culture: copper+tin.
• 2100–1900 BC: Late Beaker: knives, tanged spearheads (Bush Barrow;Wessex I;Overton Period).
• 1800–1600 BC: Fargo Phase (see correction atBedd Branwen Period); burials.

• 1500–1300 BC: Acton Park Phase: palstaves, socketed spearheads; copper+tin, also lead.
• 1300–1200 BC:Knighton Heath Period; "rapiers."
• 1200–1000 BC: EarlyUrnfield;Wilburton-Wallington Phase.

• 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 finalDowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, butiron metallurgy does not appear until about 550 BC.

Around 2500 BC, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain: theBell Beaker culture. Beaker pottery appears in theMount Pleasant Phase (2700–2000 BC), along with flat axes and the burial practice ofinhumation. People of this period were responsible for buildingSeahenge, along with the later phases ofStonehenge.Silbury Hill was also built in the early Beaker period.^[8][9] Movement of continental Europeans brought new people to the islands from the continent.^[10] 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 modernSwitzerland. The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlierNeolithic people and cultural change was significant, including the introduction of copper and gold metalworking after c. 2500 BC. Many of the earlyhenge sites seem to have been adopted by the newcomers.

Furthermore, a fundamentally different approach to burying the dead began. In contrast to the Neolithic practice of communal burials, the Bronze Age society undergoes an apparent shift towards focusing on to the individual, rather on the ancestors as a collective.[11] For example, in the Neolithic era, a largechambered cairn orlong barrow was used to house the dead. The 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individualbarrows, also commonly known and marked on modern BritishOrdnance Survey maps as tumuli, or sometimes incists covered withcairns. They were often buried with abeaker alongside the body. However, even though customs changed, barrows and burial mounds continued to be used during the Bronze Age, with smaller tombs often dug into the primary mounds.

There has been debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the "Beaker people" were a race of people thatmigrated to Britainen 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. However one recent study (2017) suggests a major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early Bronze Age Britain and up to 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool may have been replaced with the coming of a people genetically similar to the Beaker people of theLower Rhine region (modern Netherlands/central-western Germany), which had a high proportion ofsteppe ancestry.^[12] According to the evolutionary geneticistIan Barnes, "Following the Beaker spread, there was a population in Britain that for the first time had ancestry and skin and eye pigmentation similar to Britons today".^[13]

The most famous site in Britain from this period isStonehenge, which had its Neolithic form elaborated extensively.^[14] Many barrows surround it and an unusual number of 'rich' burials can be found nearby, such as theAmesbury Archer and the laterBush Barrow.

Close similarities have been noted between Stonehenge and thePömmelte circular enclosure in central Germany, which was built by Bell Beaker people around 2300 BC.^[15][16] Largetimber circles in Britain such asWoodhenge, near to Stonehenge, are similarly dated to the early Beaker period or just before the Beaker period.^[17][18] Some researchers have suggested that Woodhenge may have been a monumental roofed building, though it is usually thought to have been an open-air structure.^[19][20] Beaker people also introducedmummification,^[21][22] burial inlog coffins^[23][24] andcranial deformation to Britain.^[25]

The archaeologistTimothy Darvill has argued that Stonehenge represented asolar calendar, reflecting the spread ofsolar cosmologies across Northern Europe in the third millennium BC.^[26][27] Other researchers have emphasized thelunar aspects of Stonehenge, such as the apparent alignment of theStation Stone rectangle with theMajor Lunar Standstill, which occurs every 18.6 years.^[28] Various other astronomical interpretations have been proposed, such as the theory put forward by the astronomersGerald Hawkins andFred Hoyle that the ring of 56Aubrey Holes could have been used to predictlunar eclipses.^[29][30]

Several regions of origin have been postulated for theBeaker culture, notably the Iberian Peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe.^[33] Part of the Beaker culture brought the skill of refiningmetal to Great Britain. At first, they made items fromcopper, but by around 2200 BC, smiths had discovered how to makebronze, which is much harder than copper, by mixing copper with a small amount oftin. With that discovery, theBronze Age began in Great Britain.

Britain had large reserves of tin in what is nowCornwall andDevon inSouth West England (the largest in Europe and among the largest in the world), and thus tinmining began. South West England has the earliest evidence for tin ore exploitation in Europe.^[34] Britain was also the first region in Europe to fully adopt tin-bronze technology and switch all metalwork from copper and arsenical bronze to full tin-bronze, in the period 2200-2100 BC. This full adoption subsequently occurred across Scandinavia and Central Europe by around 1800 BC and later in southern Iberia, the Aegean (Greece) and Egypt by around 1500/1300 BC.^[35]

"A remarkable change occurred in the periodc. 2200–2100 BC when Britain was the first region in Europe to completely switch all metalwork from (arsenical) copper to full tin-bronze."^[35]

An analysis of Bronze Age–Early Iron Age tin ingots recovered from four Mediterranean shipwrecks off the coasts of Israel and southern France found that they originated from tin ores in south-west Britain.^[37] According to Williams et al. (2025), "the ‘bronzization’ of the East Mediterranean, occurring 1500–1300 BC, was primarily driven by European tin sources, particularly from south-west Britain, rather than Central Asian sources." This situation is reflected in later writings by the Greek historianHerodotus (c. 450 BC), who referred to theCassiterides or 'tin islands' in the distant northwest as the source for Mediterranean tin.^[37] The importance of Britain as a source of tin is also reflected in evidence for connections between elites of theWessex culture and elites inMycenaean Greece, notably evidenced in the richBush Barrow burial next toStonehenge.^[38][39][40]

Copper was exported to the continent from sites such as theGreat Orme mine in northernWales,^[41][42] as was gold from Cornwall (notably used to make theNebra Sky Disc associated with theÚnětice culture in central Europe).^[43][44]

Bronze axeheads, made bycasting, were at first similar to their 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, but many archaeologists believe that elite groups collected bronze items and perhaps restricted 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.

Bronze Age Britons were also skilled atmaking jewellery from gold, as well as occasional objects like theRillaton Cup andMold Cape. Many examples have been found in graves of the wealthyWessex culture of Southern Britain, but they are not as frequent as Irish finds. The earliest gold objects includegold lunulae, dating from c, 2400-2000 BC.^[46]

The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in what is nowEngland were discovered inEast Cambridgeshire, where the most important finds were recovered inIsleham (more than6500 pieces).^[47]

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 Museum.^[48] They were found in association with cereal grain that has been dated to the 12th century BC bycarbon dating.

The richWessex culture developed in southern Great Britain during that time. The weather, previously warm and dry, became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, which forced the population away from easily-defended sites in the hills and into the fertilevalleys. Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances.

TheDeverel-Rimbury culture began to emerge during the second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400–1100 BC) to exploit the wetter conditions.Cornwall was a major source oftin for much of western Europe andcopper was extracted from sites such as theGreat Orme mine in NorthernWales. Social groups appear to have been tribal, but growing complexity and hierarchies became apparent.

There is evidence of a relatively large-scale disruption of cultural patterns (seeLate Bronze Age collapse), which some scholars think may indicate an invasion (or at least a migration) into Southern Great Britain around the 12th century BC. The disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even beyond Europe, as most of the greatNear Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced severe difficulties), and theSea Peoples harried the entireMediterranean basin around that time.Cremation was adopted as a burial practice, withcemeteries ofurns containing cremated individuals appearing in the archaeological record. According toJohn T. Koch and others, the Celtic languages developed during the Late Bronze Age period in an intensely-trading-networked culture called theAtlantic Bronze Age, which included Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal,^{[50][51][52][53][54]} but that stands in contrast to the more generally-accepted view that the Celtic languages developed earlier than that, with some cultural practices developing in theHallstatt culture.

In 2021, a majorarchaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the 500-year period from 1300 to 800 BC.^[55] The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals fromGaul and had higher levels of Early European Farmers ancestry.^[55] From 1000 to 875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain,^[56] which made up around half the ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in that area, but not in northern Britain.^[55] The "evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between Britain and mainland Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups".^[56] The authors describe this as a "plausible vector for the spread of earlyCeltic languages into Britain".^[55] There was much less migration into Britain during the Iron Age and so it is likely that Celtic had reached Britain before then.^[55] The study also found thatlactose tolerance rose swiftly in early Iron Age Britain, a thousand years before it became widespread in mainland Europe, which suggests thatmilk became a very important foodstuff in Britain at this time.^[55]

• 
  Gold lunula,c. 2400–2000 BC[57]
• 
  Bell Beaker artefacts
• 
  Bush Barrow artefacts,c. 1900 BC
• 
  Rillaton gold cup,c. 1700 BC
• 
  Jet necklace, c. 2140-1900 BC^[58]
• 
  Hove amber cup,c. 1700 BC
• 
  Caergwrle Bowl,c. 1300 BC[59]^[60]
• 
  TheShropshire bulla,c. 1000 BC
• 
  Bronze axes, England
• 
  Gold ring-money^[61]
• 
  Amber necklace, England
• 
  Gold hoard, 1000 BC
• 
  Bronze shield
• 
  Early Bronze Age axe and dagger^[62]
• 
  TheOxborough Dirk, 1500–1300 BC^[63]
• 
  Bronze swords found inScotland
• 
  Tools and pottery
• 
  Late Bronze Agecauldron^[64][65]
• 
  Bronze clothing pins
• 
  Late Bronze Age gold torque
• 
  Dover Boat,c. 1500 BC
• 
  Ferriby Boat model and replica tools,c. 2000 BC
• 
  Bronze wheel parts^[66][67]
• 
  Horse bridles made from antler
• 
  Burial mounds (barrows)
• 
  Hypotheticalroundhouse reconstruction
• 
  Log coffin burial, reconstruction^[68][69]

• Prehistoric Britain
• Bronze Age Scotland
• Bronze Age Cornwall
• Bronze Age Wales
• Copper and Bronze Age Ireland
• Ferriby Boats
• Langdon Bay hoard
• List of Bronze Age hoards in Great Britain
• Bronze Age France
• Unetice culture
• Armorican Tumulus culture
• Hilversum culture
• Nordic Bronze Age
• Bronze Age Europe

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBronze Age in the United Kingdom.

• From Rapier to Langsax: Sword Structure in the British Isles in the Bronze and Iron Ages by Niko Silvester (1995)
• Divers unearth Bronze Age hoard off the coast of Devon
• Moor Sands finds, including a remarkably well preserved and complete sword which has parallels with material from the Seine basin of northern France
• 3000-year-old shipwreck shows European trade was thriving in Bronze Age
• Scales, weights and weight-regulated artefacts in Middle and Late Bronze Age Britain (Lorenz Rahmstorf 2019)

• Bronze Age Britain
• Bronze Age England
• Bronze Age Ireland
• Bronze Age Scotland
• Bronze Age Wales

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