The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 96 • Timothy Champion
For the Later Bronze Age, the many finds of bronze metalwork have been used to provide the
basis of a chronological scheme, since they can be subjected to careful typological analysis and
the hoards offer many examples of associated objects (Burgess 1968; Megaw and Simpson 1979:
242–343; Needham 1996). The characteristic assemblages, named after the findspots of typical
hoards, and dated by radiocarbon and by comparison with the sequence worked out in continental
Europe, may overlap somewhat and can be arranged chronologically as follows:
• Taunton (1400–1250 BC): axes with stop-ridges called palstaves and flanged axes, long rapiers,
spearheads; ornaments, including torcs, armlets, bracelets, finger rings and pins; specialist
tools for crafts, especially carpentry and metalwork, such as the first socketed axes, socketed
hammers, saws, chisels and anvils.
• Penard (1300–1100 BC): the first leaf-shaped swords; pegged spearheads.
• Wilburton (1150–950 BC): swords, elaborate spearheads, socketed axes, vehicle and horse
trappings, and sheet-metal cauldrons (Figure 6.1).
• Ewart Park (950–750 BC): swords, regional varieties of spearheads and socketed axes, many
types of tools such as knives and gouges, buckets and cauldrons, pins and other ornaments
(Figure 6.2).
• Llyn Fawr (750–600 BC): the final phase of the Bronze Age industry, overlapping the beginning
of the Iron Age: longer swords, heavy socketed axes, and horse trappings.
This well-established scheme (and its equivalents in other regions of Britain) is of restricted use,
however, since finds of metalwork on settlement sites or in association with other material such
as pottery are comparatively rare. A parallel sequence based on pottery has also been developed
for southern Britain, using the evidence of typology, associated finds and radiocarbon to give
absolute dates. The phases are:
• Deverel-Rimbury (named after two sites in Dorset: 1500–1000 BC): regional varieties of coarseware
bucket urns and fine-ware globular urns; Trevisker pottery is a contemporary tradition in
south-west England (Figure 6.3).
• Post-Deverel-Rimbury plain ware (1000–800 BC): coarse-ware jars undecorated except for
finger-tipping, and finer cups (Figure 6.4).
• Post-Deverel-Rimbury decorated ware (800–600 BC): similar forms with an increased range
of incised and inlaid decoration, overlapping the start of the Iron Age.
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
The vision of the Later Bronze Age has changed greatly in recent years. New perspectives derive
from several different sources: reconsideration of old evidence in the light of developing
knowledge, especially for the fixing of a correct chronology for the period; new discoveries in
the field; the application of new scientific techniques; and the emergence of new theoretical and
interpretative approaches to the prehistoric past.
The first key step was the recognition that the settlement and pottery chronology in favour in
the decades immediately after the Second World War was wrong. The relative sequence of
metalwork phases has proved to be very robust, but its application to other types of material has
been more problematic, because of a lack of good associations. The pottery and settlements of
the Deverel-Rimbury phase had been dated to the final period of the Later Bronze Age, but
more careful analysis of the evidence eventually demonstrated its true position, confirmed in
due course by calibrated radiocarbon dates, before 1000 BC. That left three centuries from 1000
BC to 700 BC in which seemingly the only archaeological material was large quantities of bronze