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

The Later Bronze Age
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metalwork. This gap was partly filled
by reconsideration of material from
the beginning of the Iron Age; the
pottery tradition previously assigned
to the Iron Age in fact begins much
earlier, with no significant break in
development into the Early Iron Age
(see Chapter 7).
Many new Later Bronze Age
settlements were discovered from
the 1970s onwards. Many sites of this
period have left little or no surface
evidence, and even their traces in the
subsoil are slight; in many cases, it
was the development of methods for
stripping large areas that allowed
such sites to be recognized for the
first time. Other important
innovations were large-scale surveys
that focused on the evolution of
Bronze Age landscape organization.
Since metalwork, potentially the
most informative evidence for
chronology, is seldom found in
useful associations, radiocarbon
dating has had a very great impact
in this period, helped by the absence
of the calibration problems that
affect its use in the Iron Age. Other
scientific methods have also
contributed, especially on questions
of climate, environment and
agricultural economy, but one set of
techniques has been of particular
significance. Analysis of metalwork,
especially bronze, has allowed
different sources of metal to be
characterized by their trace elements.
Figure 6.1 Examples of bronzes of the Wilburton assemblage.
Source: Megaw and Simpson 1979, Fig. 6.27
In this way, the supply and circulation of metal in different regions at different times can be
monitored. In some cases, the particular types of metal can be identified with specific geological
origins, giving important insights into long-distance exchange in prehistory.
One other scientific development that has had a significant impact is the availability of cheap
and effective metal detectors; one of the commonest types of object found with these devices
has been Late Bronze Age metalwork. Though many finds have not been reported, and others
lack good documentation, in some regions the rate of discoveries has been so fast that it has
been almost impossible to keep up with the new information. Though it has not fundamentally
changed our knowledge of the types of metalwork and their distribution, it has produced a
significant change in our perception of the quantity of metal in circulation in the period.