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

The Later Bronze Age
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access to rare materials and technologies; whether as part of funeral ceremonies or as gifts to the
gods, such deposits could be highly public statements about an individual’s identity. To modern
eyes, such a practice may seem an inexplicable waste, but the value of bronze may have lain in the
status conferred by the ability to acquire it, to possess it and to discard it, and its use in the
demonstration of such status, as much as in any functional utility as a tool.
The second theme is warfare. The use of slashing swords and armour suggests a new form of
combat, and a new status for the fully armoured warrior. The edges of many swords show signs
of use, but the shields and helmets appear too thin to have offered much protection in battle, and
may have been more for display, though one shield seems to have been pierced by a spear. The
swords and sheet metal armour were certainly some of the most elaborate products of the Bronze
Age smiths, requiring many complex skills. Whether such weapons were worn in real battles, or in
symbolic rituals of warfare, or simply in showy parade, they were undoubtedly a very obvious
symbol of power.
The third theme concerns feasting, the other main function for which sheet bronze was used.
Cauldrons and their associated flesh-hooks and buckets represent the material evidence of the
ritualized preparation and serving of meat and drink, while finds of pottery and animal bones
from some sites have also been interpreted in this way.
Finally, wheeled vehicles represented the most complex technological achievements of the
Bronze Age, demanding high levels of skill in carpentry, metalwork, leatherwork and animal
management. The uses to which such wagons were put are not clear. There may have been
utilitarian versions, but others probably had a significant ritual role; wheeled vehicles have remained
a favourite theme for lavish expenditure and symbolic display ever since. The recovery of a hoard
of vehicle parts near the summit of Horsehope, Peeblesshire, indicates something of the
possibilities.
These new areas of social activity show the relationship between prestige, material culture and
technology; the demand for such items was a powerful stimulus to the development of technical
skills by innovation and imitation. Control over access to such items and the skill to produce
them was an important basis for prestige in Later Bronze Age society and a means of demonstrating
it. The importance of feasting links these ideas to the consumption of food, but the full articulation
of the system of prestige goods to the agricultural economy is not clear. The intensification of
agricultural production, the increasing signs of land division, and the development of the salt
industry all suggest that control over the production and distribution of food was also an important
feature of Later Bronze Age society.
The material evidence for these prestige activities assumes a high profile in the archaeological
record, creating an inevitable emphasis on the hierarchical nature of Later Bronze Age society,
but it is not clear how extreme such inequalities were or how they were manifested in daily life.
Nor are these relationships the only ones of interest, though they may be the most obvious. The
emerging role of specialist craft producers has been discussed above. Relationships of age and
gender may also have been changing at this time, and may have been more meaningful for most
people’s lives, even if it is difficult to detect them archaeologically. The changing nature of pottery
produced in the Later Bronze Age, at least in southern Britain, provides one possible insight into
such relations, and suggests that the domestic rituals of preparing, serving and consuming food
were being ordered in new ways throughout society (Barrett 1989).
BRITAIN IN WIDER PERSPECTIVE
Britain was not isolated, and we have already seen some of the evidence for contacts in the form
of boats and continental imports. The links ran much deeper, however, and can be seen in a wide