The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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• 110 • Timothy Champion<br />
range <strong>of</strong> stylistic, technologi<strong>ca</strong>l, economic and ritual developments that affected many areas <strong>of</strong><br />
temperate Europe at this time (Coles and Harding 1979, 459–532). <strong>The</strong>y are particularly clear in<br />
the material culture <strong>of</strong> the elite, and demonstrate the existence <strong>of</strong> social relationships through<br />
which knowledge <strong>of</strong> new styles and technologies could be transmitted, and through which the<br />
movement <strong>of</strong> people and objects could be facilitated.<br />
New industries such as salt and textiles were matched by similar developments elsewhere in<br />
Europe, as were other changes in the agricultural economy. New crops, more emphasis on storage,<br />
increased evidence for territorial division and, ultimately, field systems are all seen throughout<br />
Europe, especially in the north and west, though the precise chronology is regionally very variable.<br />
Close contacts with continental Europe <strong>ca</strong>n be seen in many features <strong>of</strong> Bronze Age material<br />
culture, most obviously in metalwork, where both style and technology show similar patterns <strong>of</strong><br />
development (O’Connor 1980). <strong>The</strong> ornament styles <strong>of</strong> the Taunton phase link <strong>Britain</strong> particularly<br />
closely to northern Europe, but later connections are to western and central Europe. <strong>The</strong> bronze<br />
industries <strong>of</strong> southern <strong>Britain</strong> show especially close links with those <strong>of</strong> northern France, and the<br />
Carp’s Tongue sword assemblage is distributed <strong>from</strong> south-eastern England along the Atlantic<br />
coast <strong>of</strong> Europe. Some new styles are part <strong>of</strong> even more widespread networks <strong>of</strong> interaction:<br />
complex <strong>ca</strong>sting and sheet technologies were developed throughout much <strong>of</strong> Europe to provide<br />
objects for new forms <strong>of</strong> social prestige, especially vessels, arms and armour. Though the basic<br />
themes are standard, there is a high degree <strong>of</strong> regional variation: <strong>ca</strong>uldrons and flesh-hooks are<br />
confined to the west and north-west, while buckets and cups are more common in central Europe;<br />
swords and sheet armour are found in most areas, but <strong>Britain</strong> has only swords, shields and helmets,<br />
not the breast-plates and greaves known elsewhere.<br />
<strong>Britain</strong> <strong>ca</strong>n be seen as part <strong>of</strong> a wider north-west European zone in the later Bronze Age,<br />
including parts <strong>of</strong> northern France and the Low Countries. This zone was united not only by<br />
these shared techni<strong>ca</strong>l and stylistic traditions, but also by common developments in ritual activity.<br />
Throughout the region, the long-established Bronze Age burial tradition largely disappeared, and<br />
deposition in watery places be<strong>ca</strong>me common. This north-western zone is sharply differentiated<br />
<strong>from</strong> another cultural province in central Europe, which extended as far west as central and<br />
southern France. <strong>The</strong>re the Later Bronze Age, though sharing many <strong>of</strong> the techni<strong>ca</strong>l and stylistic<br />
innovations, is distinguished by the Urnfield tradition <strong>of</strong> cremation burials; many <strong>of</strong> the objects<br />
buried with these cremations are precisely the types that turn up in the watery deposits <strong>of</strong><br />
northwestern Europe.<br />
CURRENT PROBLEMS<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the main themes <strong>of</strong> this chapter has been the uncertainty <strong>of</strong> many current interpretations<br />
<strong>of</strong> the available evidence. <strong>The</strong> framework for a reliable chronology has been established, and a<br />
better understanding is emerging <strong>of</strong> the nature <strong>of</strong> some parts <strong>of</strong> the surviving record. Nevertheless,<br />
the picture is very uncertain, and the evidence patchy.<br />
In many areas, little is yet known about the nature <strong>of</strong> human occupation in the Later Bronze<br />
Age. This is particularly true <strong>of</strong> parts <strong>of</strong> western and northern <strong>Britain</strong>. It is precisely these areas<br />
that were most affected by the climatic and environmental changes <strong>of</strong> the late second millennium,<br />
and a major problem for the future is to investigate the nature <strong>of</strong> settlement in these areas, and<br />
more fully to assess the extent and speed <strong>of</strong> changes and the degree to which they may be<br />
attributable to external environmental factors rather than internal social forces.<br />
<strong>An</strong>other problem needing investigation is the regional variability <strong>of</strong> settlement. Where detailed<br />
surveys have been <strong>ca</strong>rried out, one regular result has been the very fine-grained variation in the