Early Britain: Bronze Age

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

From 2100 BC to 650 BC, Britain was in the Bronze Age.

This means that, instead of making all their tools out of stones, the people learned how to work with metal. This was a huge discovery and a big leap forward for the early British people!

Bronze, however, was not the first metal they discovered. Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin. The discovery that these two metals could be mixed came later.

The first metal people worked with was copper, which was introduced to early Britons through trade and cultural exchange with neighboring societies.

The discovery of copper greatly impacted the people of the time. Metal is much more durable than stone because the stone can break apart if it's hit hard enough. Also, metal can be sharpened into a finer point for knives, arrowheads, and axes.

Think about how much easier it made their work to have metal instead of stone tools!

• So who were the foreign people who brought this great new technology to Britain?

The Beaker People

Around 2500 BC, new people arrived in Britain. They brought the technology to make copper, some new cultural ideas, and some interesting pottery.

These bell-shaped pots, called Bell Beakers, are where the people get their names.

One of the cultural ideas the Beaker people brought to Britain was the concept of burying people as individuals. Before this, people were buried together in mass graves and never with their possessions.

The Beakers liked to bury their dead with a lot of stuff. Historians are not sure why, but here are some possibilities.

• They thought they might need these things in the afterlife.
• They wanted to honor the dead by showing their wealth and importance.
• They believed their things should go into the earth with them and not be used by anyone else.

• Which idea seems most likely to you?

Amesbury Archer

• How do we know how the Beakers buried their dead?

Our understanding of the Beakers' burial rituals is based mainly on the Amesbury Archer's grave, which contained around 100 things!

Watch the video below to see what archaeologists found buried with him.

• So what were some of the things found in the Archer's grave?

Archeologists found some of the oldest metal objects found in Britain, including the earliest gold jewelry, They also found tools for working metal, Beaker pots, arrowheads, and Archer's wrist guards. (Now you know why he's called the Archer!)

Bronze

While learning to make and use copper tools was a great discovery, an even greater one came a bit later.

• Can you guess what it was?

Of course! How to mix copper and tin to make bronze!

Bronze was much stronger than copper and easier to work with. However, tin was hard to find. So when it was founded in Britain, the early British people were propelled into a world of trade, wealth, and status as they had never known before.

Metal workers, traders, and those who controlled trade routes could build great wealth for themselves.

Boats and Trade

• How did these early people travel to trade all over Britain and the rest of the world?

They made strong and durable boats from wooden planks sewn together with ropes made from branches.

• Would you like to see the oldest sea-going boat ever found in Britain?

Watch a segment of the following video about The Dover Boat, which dates from around 2000 BC.

Roundhouses

As the people of Britain began living a new kind of life centered around agriculture, craftsmanship, and trade, they also began to live in settled communities for the first time.

In Dartmoor, England, relics of these first permanent settlements exist.

The Bronze Age people lived in circular houses called roundhouses. They had stone or wooden posts with a lattice (weaving) of wooden strips in between and a mixture of twigs, clay, and soil spread onto the weave.

This building method is called wattle and daub. The lattice is the wattle, and the earthen mixture is daubed (coated) onto it. Then a thatched roof was put on top.

The following images are more models of what historians think their houses may have looked like.

Now, explore a virtual version in the video below.

End of the Bronze Age

The Bronze Age ended when another metal started to replace it: iron. It was harder than bronze and did not have to be sharpened as often, though it was a little harder to work with.

Now, sharpen your Bronze Age knowledge with the challenges on the Got It? page!

You'll describe and analyze some of the things found with the Amesbury Archer and decide if you could have survived in a Bronze Age village!