TheWessex culture is the predominant prehistoricculture of central and southernBritain during the earlyBronze Age, originally defined by the British archaeologistStuart Piggott in 1938.[1]
The culture is related to theHilversum culture of the southern Netherlands, Belgium and northern France, and linked to theArmorican Tumulus culture in northern France[2] and theÚnětice culture in central Germany, with connections to theArgaric culture in southern Iberia and toMycenaean Greece. It is prototyped with the Middle Rhine group of theBell Beaker culture and commonly subdivided in the consecutive phases of Wessex I (2000–1650 BC) and Wessex II (1650–1400). Piggott attributes the origin of this culture to an "actual ethnic movement" from Northern France.[3] Piggott describes the culture as composed of an underlying substratum, similar to the contemporary food vessel culture found further north, and an intrusive ruling class who opened trading networks with France and central and northern Europe, and imported bronze tools and probably also artisans.[4]
It has been speculated that river transport allowed Wessex to be the main link to theSevern estuary.[5] The wealth from such trade probably permitted the Wessex people to construct the second and third (megalithic) phases ofStonehenge and also indicates a powerful form of social organisation.[6]
The Wessex culture is typically split up into two periods - the first in 2000-1650 BC and the second in 1650-1400 BC.[7]
The culture is related to theHilversum culture, and consisted ofBell Beaker people from what is today theNetherlands,Belgium and NorthernFrance. The people of the first Wessex culture, commonly known as Wessex I, were involved with a rebuilding ofStonehenge, and made weapons such as daggers and axes withbronze.
The Wessex II culture likely traded withMycenaean Greece,[8][9] as well asCrete andEgypt. They also had access to gold tools, found at their burial sites.
When the term 'Wessex Culture' was first coined, investigations into British prehistory were in their infancy and the unusually rich and well documented burials in the Wessex area loomed large in literature on the Bronze Age. During the twentieth century many more Bronze Age burials were uncovered and opinions about the nature of the early-mid Bronze Age shifted considerably. Since the late 20th century it has become customary to consider 'Wessex Culture' as a limited social stratum rather than a distinct cultural grouping, specifically referring to the hundred or so particularly richly furnished graves in and aroundWiltshire. The culture group, however, is named as one of the intrusive Beaker groups that appear in Ireland.[10]
The first phase, Wessex I, is characterised by rich depositions in the graves of chieftains, including gold artifacts, and crouched inhumations underbarrows (e.g. theBush Barrow).[11] This period is closely associated with the construction and use of the later phases ofStonehenge.[12] The second phase, Wessex II, is characterised by less rich grave goods without gold and a resurgence of cremations, believed to be a return to the previous funerary practices of the British Neolithic.[11] They appear to have had wide rangingtrade links with continental Europe, importingamber from theBaltic, jewellery from modern day Germany, gold fromBrittany as well as daggers and beads fromMycenaean Greece and vice versa. They produced characteristic pendants in the shape of halberds, with handles made from gold or amber, or a combination of these materials.[13]