Essay on the ‘radical change’ in the nature of British society during the later Bronze Age.
What evidence is there for ‘radical change’ in the nature of British society during the later Bronze Age?
The Late Bronze Age (LBA) in Britain can be thought of as the long period from approximately 1140-700BC, following the Early (EBA) and Middle Bronze Age (MBA) beginning around 2200 and 1500BC respectively (Parker Pearson 2005, 122-23). The EBA is noted for tomb building and communal burials, and the creation of sacred landscapes and monuments as well as the Bell-Beaker phenomenon and the Wessex Culture (Parker Pearson 2005; Sherratt 1994, 250-56). The long MBA/LBA saw a change in settlement and the abandonment of traditional ritual sites. Society seems to become more warlike in terms of the development of hillforts and changes in artefacts. This essay shall discuss briefly the evidence for radical change in the nature of British society during the LBA and will begin by examining the landscape, climate and agriculture, habitation, burials and artefacts and finally the nature and organisation of society before offering some conclusions.
In the EBA, the landscape had already been transformed by clearance for agriculture, hedges, ditches and walls and had witnessed the development of uplands. The area of Dartmoor was intensively developed from around 1500BC, perhaps for livestock more than crops (Parker Pearson 2005, 89-90, 130-31; Pryor 2003, 317). After 1300BC, at least in southern England, long boundary ditches and banks, as at Bokerley Dyke, were driven through earlier arrangements, seeming to divide the landscape into ranches or estates (Harding 1994, 317-18). It has been suggested that LBA boundaries at sites such as Barleycroft and Flag Fen were not necessarily or solely for agricultural purposes or agriculturally rational (Pryor 2003, 305-09). Cattle were certainly important in many areas, such as Milfield (Waddington 1997).
In the LBA the climate of the British Isles seems to have changed, becoming…
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Tags: British, British society, Bronze Age, climate
