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

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