Bronze Age

The term 'Bronze Age' generally refers to the period in a civilisation's development when the most advanced metalworking possible amounted to bronze forging. In particular, the bronze was used to create better tools and weapons. In some cases, metals found ceremonial uses.

• Earlier Neolithic
• Later Iron Age

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In Britain, the Bronze Age is considered to have been the period from 2500 to 500 BC. The Neolithic (New Stone Age) had just finished and change was significant. First, the climate was deteriorating, forcing the population down from easily-defended sites in the hills to fertile valleys. Also, the burial of dead (which until this period had usually been communal) became more individual. For example, whereas in the Neolithic a large chambered cairn was used to house the dead, the Bronze Age saw people buried in individual cists, sometimes covered with cairn material. Ritual sites also changed, often becoming cruder and smaller as, perhaps, the original meaning became diluted and twisted as it was passed down from generation to generation.

Structures:

• Barrow?
• Cairn
• Four poster
• Henge?
• [Hut circle]?