The Bronze Age
By Charles in England

As the hobby of metal detecting embraces all period of time and can also include artifacts not of metallic substance I thought it would be of help to our members not acquainted with the early periods of history starting with the Bronze Age. Many tool implements from this period have come to light since the advent of metal detecting. The first Annual Report of Portable Antiquities has now been published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a governmental department responsible for reporting back to the Government the progress being made on the reporting of finds throughout England and Wales. Among the artifacts displayed in color are axes from the Bronze-age period dating to 1400 - 1100 BC. So this is where I begin.

The Bronze Age is characterized by the first use of copper and bronze. It is well to note at this point that bronze has never changed in its formula since first was manufactured. The content is, as it was then, 90 percent copper and 10 percent tin.

The period was divided into the Early Bronze Age (c2300 - 1400 BC), the Middle Bronze Age (c1400 - 1000 BC), and the Late Bronze Age (c1000 - 700 BC). It has now been redefined as the Early Bronze Age (c2300 - 1200 BC), and Later Bronze Age (c 1200 - 700 BC).

Within the Bronze Age various cultures and metal working industries have been recognized. The Beaker culture dates from c2300 BC and is represented by pottery, burials and some settlement. The Wessex culture dates from 1700 BC and is represented by burials accompanied by rich grave goods. Since it is only represented by these burials, it is not a culture in the strictest sense. It is contemporary with many sites that have produced food vessels.

The Deverel-Rimbury culture dates from c1400 BC. and is mainly represented by burial sites accompanied by Deverel-Rimbury pottery, and some settlement sites. The Bronze Age has also been divided into phases based on evidence from metalwork industries.

SETTLEMENT SITES AND AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY.

Beaker people have been described as nomadic and pastoral, since very few domestic sites of this period are known (as with all the Earlier Bronze Age period), while there is evidence for the hunting of red deer and collecting of shellfish.

A more settled economy is indicated, however, by finds of grain rubbers, paired postholes which may have been corn- drying racks, and oval settings of postholes and stone packing which may have been huts or enclosures.

There have been finds of bone implements (particularly at Northton, Isle of Harris, Western Isles) which may indicate a settled pastoral economy.

Grain impressions (mainly barley) have also been found on some Beaker pottery.

Many bronze instruments have been found in rivers, bogs and most importantly by dedicated metal detectorists on farmland. The Wilsford shaft near Stonehenge, Wiltshire, is a pit of at least 33m deep and 2m diameter, which contained many items of Bronze Age date. A C14 date of 1,300 + or - 90 BC has been obtained from wood from the shaft. The shaft may have had a ritual purpose. Other feature which may have had a ritual significance are stone circles, standing stones, henges and carvings on stones. There is much evidence for ritual in the burial practices of the Early Bronze Age, but virtually nothing is known of the underlying beliefs.

Next bulletin will be more of interest to us metal detectorists. It is likely that at some stage in your search you will encounter some sort of bronze item either in whole or in part such as axe heads or part of such. I would have liked to exhibit some that I have found, one being a Narrow Butted flat axe, one of the earliest known pieces of metalwork. It is of the family first found in the Migdale\Marnoch area of Scotland and is known as the Migdale-Marnoch tradition.

Metalwork.

Much evidence for the Bronze Age is derived from its bronze work, which can be divided into various industries and phases, although implements can occur in more than one phase.

The introduction of copper implements and copper working into Britain can be attributed to the beaker culture. copper implements are found mainly in Beaker burials and include tanged flat daggers, (tanged daggers, tanged knives) some of which had single a rivet hole or notch in the tang and are called 'single-riveted tanged daggers. On Beaker metalwork includes pins, awls, tubular beads halberds (found mainly in the Highland Zone), and broad-butt flat axes (Broad-butted flat axes).

Migdale-Marnoch Tradition.

Around 2,000 BC, bronze made from copper alloyed with tin began to be used. This early phase of bronze working is called the Migdale-Marnoch Tradition, named after Migdale, Highland, and Marnoch, Grampian), and in its later stage it overlaps with metalwork from the Wessex culture. Pins, awls, tubular beads, basket-shaped earrings (ear- pendants), plain , ribbed or ridged rings and bracelets, narrow-butted flat axes, riveted flat daggers, usually with three stout rivets, and hollow cones belonging to this tradition have all been found by the metal detectors.

The Essex Culture.

The Essex (southern England) culture dated from the 7th century be and the metalwork found mainly as grave goods. The metal detectors leave the graves to the academics to rifle through, they generally have great regard for the sanctity of burial from whatever period.

In Essex 1 (the early phase) Armorist-British daggers (Bush Barrow daggers) are found, so-called because of their similarities to ones found in Armorica (Brittany). These daggers are flat and triangular in shape. They usually have six slender rivets and sometimes a projecting tongue (languette) and lateral grooves. Traces of wooden and leather sheaths have survived with some of them, as well as dagger pommels of wood, one decorated with thousands of minute gold pins. A bronze dagger pommel from this period was recovered from a land site recently no more than eight inches down from the surface by one of my club members. It was duly reported to the regional finds officer Mr. Nick Heripath of Liverpool. It had suffered from the ravages of time but a nice find nevertheless. It won find of the month competition.

Also found are halberd pendants (miniature copies of hafted bronze halberd blades, flat axes including some miniature ones), and awls.

Wessex II.

Dates from c1500 BC and the metalwork is characterized by Camerton-Snowshill daggers which are oval in shape, with a midrib, and two or three large rivets. Some are ornamented and some have traces of a wooden sheath. Knife-daggers less than about 10cms in length, which usually have two rivet holes. Pins are occasionally found including crutch-headed pins, ring-headed pins (composed of one or more rings), bulb-headed pins and disc-headed pins. Tanged razors have also been found

Arreton Down Tradition.

The Arreton Down tradition of metalwork Named after Arreton Down in the Isle of Wight) dates to the 16th and 15th centuries BC and is represented widely in southern England, apart from Wessex, and extends to Yorkshire. The metalwork is found mainly in hoards and as single finds, and is characterized by thin butted axes which have flanges and a wide cutting edge (flanged axes) and are occasionally decorated. There are also tanged spearheads, with a lozenge or kite-shaped blade and a tang, usually with a single rivet, end-looped spearheads with the loops at the end of the socket, and a variety of daggers which include Camerton- Snowhill daggers, three-ribbed daggers and other daggers with grooves or midribs.

Acton Park Phase.

I have been fortunate to observe the location in which these objects were found, living as I do only a few hundred yards from Acton Park. Acton Hall occupied the parkland and was the home of the notorious Judge Jeffries, the hanging judge who sentenced the Tolpuddle Martyrs for their `misdemeanors'. The hall is no longer, the council decided to destroy it and its legend as they have of many historic buildings in the area. The location is actually in Borras Road, Wrexham, outside the park itself but I expect it was easier to say Acton Phase than Borras Park Road phase.

These axe heads were discovered when foundations were being dug for a farm house and are now in the British Museum I believe?

The Acton Park Phase dates from c1500 BC. Some of the metalwork of this phase has been found in hoards. The metalwork is characterized by various types of palstave, which is a type of axe with flanges and a stop-ridge; the main difference between a palstave and a flanged axe is that the stop-ridge is more developed in a palstave. Typical Acton Park palstaves are ornamented with a shield-shaped motif on the blade

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