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

• 104 • Timothy Champion
CRAFT, TECHNOLOGY AND TRADE
Much of the output of non-agricultural production in the Bronze Age does not survive, especially
items of organic materials, but scattered evidence of raw material extraction, specialist tools and
waste products allows a picture of the developing technology and craft skills of the period to be
formed.
The flint mines of southern Britain, which had been so important a source of raw material in
the Earlier Bronze Age, went out of use. Flint was still used to make tools, but they were simpler
and more utilitarian than before; Later Bronze Age flint assemblages often consist of little more
than comparatively crude flakes. The explanation of this change is complex: there may have been
an alternative and better source, especially metal, for the many different tools needed; alternatively,
an elaborate technology was now unnecessary for stone tools as they were no longer used for
symbolically important social roles.
Metal ores were exploited at several locations in western Britain. Deep mines for copper are
known from Wales, especially at Great Orme, Llandudno, on the north Welsh coast. Analyses of
trace elements suggest that a number of western copper sources were used at different times,
though copper was also imported from the Continent. Gold, tin and lead were also won, but little
is known about their extraction.
Other mineral resources exploited
include shale from Dorset, used
mainly for manufacturing bracelets.
One important new industry was
salt boiling. At sites along the east
and south coasts from Lincolnshire
to Dorset, seawater was heated in
fired clay containers to extract the
salt, which could then be traded
inland. The demand for salt may
have arisen from a fashionable taste
for salty food, but more probably it
was related to a reorganization of
food production and a growing need
to preserve, store and trade meat.
Organic materials such as cloth
and leather are more problematic.
Though no actual examples have
survived, they certainly provided
finished products that played a
critical role in domestic and social
life. The best evidence for leather
working is seen in specialized knives
first produced in the Later Bronze
Age, suggesting a new level of craft
specialism and an increased
importance for non-meat products
of cattle. Textiles are best
Figure 6.8 The Dover Bronze Age boat during excavation.
Source: Courtesy of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust
demonstrated by spindle-whorls and
loom-weights, which become