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

The Later Bronze Age
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much attention, but elsewhere, as in
Wales, almost nothing is known of
contemporary settlement. The key
sites are best reviewed on a regional
basis.
In eastern England, the earlier
part of the period is characterized by
small cremation cemeteries with local
variants of the Deverel-Rimbury
pottery tradition, and some evidence
for settlements. At Fengate,
Peterborough (Pryor 1991: 52–73),
these were associated with extensive
field systems laid out around the
thirteenth century BC, designed for
efficient management of a pastoral
cattle economy.
The most striking site of the
whole British Later Bronze Age has
been excavated at Flag Fen, near
Peterborough (Pryor 1991; 1992). As
the fens grew wetter and formed a
shallow inlet of the sea, a massive
timber platform was constructed
about 1000 BC in the open water at
the mouth of the bay. It was linked
Figure 6.3 Deverel-Rimbury pottery.
Sources: (left and upper right) Annable, F.K. and Simpson, D.D.A., 1964. Guide
catalogue of the Neolithic and Bronze Age collections in Devizes Museum. Devizes:
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Figs 576 and 566
respectively, (lower right) Dacre, M. and Ellison, A., 1981. ‘A Bronze Age
urn cemetery at Kimpton, Hampshire’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
47, 147–203, Fig. 19.
to the dry land on either side by an alignment of vertical posts more than a kilometre long. In the
peat alongside this alignment were found nearly 300 metal items, together with animal bones and
pottery, all originally dropped or carefully placed into the water of the bay. The metal items are
mainly of bronze, but a few are pure tin; most belong to the Later Bronze Age, but some are of
Iron Age date. They include many rings, pins and other small items, as well as swords, spears and
daggers, and fragments of bronze helmets. This extraordinary site shows a long-lasting tradition
of depositing objects in watery places.
Similar practices are well known from major rivers, especially the Thames, which has a long
history of dredging and archaeological observation. The material recovered from the river bed
spans a very long period, but there are particular concentrations of Later Bronze Age metalwork
in certain stretches. These are not randomly chosen items, but include especially swords and
certain types of spearhead. Human skeletal remains have also been found in the river, and again
there is a concentration of dated examples in the Later Bronze Age, suggesting a link between
the deposition of metalwork in the river and the disposal of at least some of the dead (Bradley
and Gordon 1988).
Settlement evidence in the middle and lower Thames Valley suggests a considerable density
of population. In the tributary valley of the Kennet, there is a particularly high concentration of
sites, such as Aldermaston Wharf, Berkshire (Bradley et al. 1980); these are unenclosed clusters
of round houses and pits, showing evidence for a mixed agricultural economy and craft activity
such as textile production, but little metalwork or other wealth. A very different sort of site also
existed in the Thames Valley, as at Runnymede Bridge, Surrey (Needham 1991). Here there was
a site with a wooden piled waterfront, producing many bronze objects and other imports such as