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Traditions of Metal-Working in the Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Britain: Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Dennis Britton
Dennis Britton
Affiliation:
Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
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Extract

This paper is concerned with the earliest use in Britain of copper and bronze, from the first artifacts of copper in the later Neolithic until the transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age, as marked by palstaves and haft-flanged axes. It does not attempt to deal with all the material, but instead certain classes of evidence have been chosen to illustrate some of the main styles of workmanship. These groups have been considered both from the point of view of their archaeology, and of the technology they imply.

Such an approach requires on the one hand that the artifacts are sorted into types, their associations in graves and hoards studied, their distributions plotted, and finally a consideration of the evidence for their affinities and chronology. On the other hand there are questions also of interest that need a different standpoint. Of what metals or alloys are the objects made? Can their sources be located? How did the smiths set about their work? Over what regions was production carried out? If we are to understand as much as we might of the life of prehistoric times, then surely we should look at material culture from as many view-points as possible—in this case, the manner and setting of its production as well as its classification.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 29 , December 1963 , pp. 258 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1963

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References

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page 259 note 1 Except when halberds occur, presumably as scrap, in Late Bronze Age hoards.

page 261 note 1 Mr T. G. E. Powell and Mr C. B. Burgess drew my attention to this recent find, and Mr J. Forde-Johnstone has very kindly allowed me to mention it in advance of publication. To all these I am especially grateful.

page 261 note 2 SirSinclair, John (editor), The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. 16 (Edinburgh, 1795) 285–6Google Scholar: under the parish of Whithorn, by Isaac Davidson; Callander, J. G., Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. LVII (1922–1923) 125, 127Google Scholar.

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page 276 note 1 A large selection of material in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh, has been analysed by Dr M. Schröder (Stuttgart). For information about this work I am much obliged to the Keeper, Mr R. B. K. Stevenson.

page 276 note 2 At the Research Laboratory for Archaeology, University of Oxford (Director: Dr E. T. Hall).

page 276 note 3 See E. Voce's account of experimental casting in a stone mould of the Bronze Age, in Coghlan, H. H., Notes on the Prehistoric Metallurgy of Copper and Bronze in the Old World (Oxford, 1951) 112–5Google Scholar.

page 277 note 1 M. E. C. Stewart has suggested that the grooves in the mould from Burreldales (Aberdeen) could be for securing a cover of stone or wood, in the Bulletin of the Inst. of Metallurgists, vol. 5, no. 8 (Dec, 1955) 8Google Scholar. Might they not be matrices for bars?

page 277 note 2 Report by Maryon, H., in Megaw, B. R. S. and Hardy, E. M., PPS IV (1938) 279Google Scholar.

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page 279 note 2 Tylecote, R. F., Metallurgy in Archaeology (London, 1962) 156Google Scholar.

page 279 note 3 In Banff Museum, where seen by the author; referred to by Smith, M. A., Inventaria Archaeologica: GB. 20, section 6. (1) (London, 1957)Google Scholar.

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page 279 note 5 In the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh. To be published by the excavators, Miss A. S. Henshall and J. C. Wallace, to whom I am greatly obliged for advance information, in Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot.

page 279 note 6 Castern: Bateman, T., Ten Years' Diggings (London, 1861) 166–7Google Scholar. Normanton: SirHoare, Richard Colt, Ancient Wiltshire I (London, 1812) 160Google Scholar; Thurnam, J., Archaeologia XLIII (1871) 469–70Google Scholar.

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page 281 note 1 Mortimer, J. R., Forty Years' Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire (London 1905) 232Google Scholar, pl. 79.

page 281 note 2 Piggott, S. and Stewart, M., Inventaria Archaeologica: GB. 27, section 6. (8) (London, 1958)Google Scholar.

page 281 note 3 Bush Barrow: Piggott, S., PPS IV (1938) 63Google Scholar, fig. 3. On the type and for details of most: ApSimon, A. M., 10th Ann. Rep., London Univ. Inst. of Archaeol. (1954) 37–62Google Scholar.

page 281 note 4 Drew, C. D. and Piggott, S., Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Archaeol. Soc. LVIII (1936) 20–1, 24–5Google Scholar; Grinsell, L. V., Dorset Barrows (Dorchester, 1959) 141Google Scholar.

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page 282 note 1 Cressingham: Thurnam, J., Archaeologia XLIII (1871) 454Google Scholar. Wilsford (Barrow G. 23, Normanton 139): ApSimon, A. M., 10th Ann. Rep., London Univ. Inst. of Archaeol. (1954) 54Google Scholar.

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page 282 note 3 Mortimer, J. R., Forty Years' Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire (London, 1905) 5Google Scholar. Pl. 1: fig. 8.

page 283 note 1 Wilson, D., The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1851) 254Google Scholar; Piggott, S. and Stewart, M., Inventaria Archaeologica: GB. 30 (London, 1958)Google Scholar.

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page 283 note 3 See, e.g. Forssander, J. E., Der ostskandinavische Norden während der ältesten Metallzeit Europas (Lund, 1936) 93–8Google Scholar; Rfordáin, S. P. Ó, Archaeologia LXXXVI (1936) 195–321Google Scholar; von Brunn, W. A., Die Hortfunde der frühen Bronzezeit aus Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen und Thüringen (Berlin, 1959)Google Scholar, passim.

page 284 note 1 Halberds in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh, analysed by Dr M. Schröder (Stuttgart). For information about this work I am much obliged to the Keeper, Mr R. B. K. Stevenson.

page 284 note 2 General accounts as already cited. Add: Hachmann, R., Die frühe Bronzezeit im westlichen Ostseegebiet (Hamburg, 1957)Google Scholar, for discussions of kinds of rivets.

page 284 note 3 SirFox, Cyril, The Personality of Britain (Cardiff, 4th edition, 1943)Google Scholar pl. 7.

page 285 note 1 ApSimon, A. M., 10th Ann. Rep., London Univ. Inst. of Archaeol. (1954) 42 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 286 note 1 Comments by Evans, J., Ancient Bronze Implements (London, 1881) 50–1Google Scholar.

page 286 note 2 Megaw, B. R. S. and Hardy, E. M., PPS IV (1938) 272 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 289 note 1 MrLort, , Archaeologia V (1779) pl. 8, no. 27, opp. page 113Google Scholar.

page 292 note 1 Hodges, H. W. M., Ulster Journ. of Archaeol. (3rd series) XVII (1954) 66Google Scholar. The Bodwrdin mould is described as of ‘honestone’ already in 1846, which is before the word was first applied to specific minerals—1855 and 1882, according to The New English Dictionary (Oxford, 1901)Google Scholar.

page 292 note 2 SirFox, Cyril, The Personality of Britain (4th edition, Cardiff, 1943)Google Scholar pl. 7; Megaw, B. R. S. and Hardy, E. M., PPS IV (1938) 280–2Google Scholar.

page 292 note 3 Wallmead-barrow, Camerton: Thurnam, J., Archaeologia XLIII (1871)Google Scholar fig. 170 on 468; Piggott, S., PPS IV (1938)Google Scholar fig. 14 OP 76. Snowshill: Greenwell, W., Archaeologia LII (1890)Google Scholar fig. 33 on 72. Collingbourne Ducis: Piggott, S., PPS IV (1938)Google Scholar fig. 18 on 87. Loose Howe: H. W., and Elgee, F., PPS XV (1949)Google Scholar fig. 10 on 100.

page 292 note 4 Ablington: Poore, D., Archaeol. Journ. X (1853) 248Google Scholar; Piggott, S., PPS IV (1938) 103Google Scholar, no. 30. Stanton Harcourt: Harden, D. B., Oxoniensia V (1940) 161–2Google Scholar; Harden, D. B. and Treweeks, R. C., Oxoniensia X (1945)Google Scholar fig. 9, no. 4b, on 27, pl. 5 D.

page 292 note 5 Map: Ashbee, P., The Bronze Age Round Barrow in Britain (London, 1960)Google Scholar fig. 51 on 145.

page 292 note 6 Bryce, T. H., Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. XXXVI (1901–1902) 118–20Google Scholar.

page 293 note 1 I am grateful to C. B. Burgess for drawing my attention to this find. Archaeologia Cambrensis (4th series) IV (1873) 213–14Google Scholar; Chitty, L. F., Archaeologia Cambrensis (7th series) VII (1926) 406–9Google Scholar; Grimes, W. F., The Prehistory of Wales (2nd edition, Cardiff, 1951) 198Google Scholar, fig. 62, no. 11 on 250.

page 293 note 2 British Museum (WG 2021); Evans, J., Ancient Bronze Implements (London, 1881) 223Google Scholar. Childe, V. G., The Prehistory of Scotland (London, 1935) 145Google Scholar, fig. 38 (1); National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh (DG 88).

page 293 note 3 Greenwell, W. and Brewis, W. P., Archaeologia LXI (1909)Google Scholar pl. 60, fig. 8; pl. 61, fig. 10.

page 293 note 4 Dean Water: Catalogue of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1892) 137–8Google Scholar (DG 23). Thames: Greenwell, W. and Brewis, W. P., Archaeologia LXI (1909)Google Scholar pl. 61, fig. 12.

page 293 note 5 In the barrow on Breach Farm, Llanbleddian (Glamorgan), was found a chisel of simple form, but too corroded for more details, and a small flat axe: Grimes, W. F.PPS IV (1938) 113Google Scholar.

page 293 note 6 Britton, D. and Richards, E. E., Archaeometry IV (1961) 39–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 294 note 1 Brown, M. A. and Blin-Stoyle, A. E., PPS XXV (1959) 188–208Google Scholar.

page 295 note 1 E.g. Hodges, H. W. M., Ulster Journ. of Archaeol. (3rd series) XVII (1954) 68–80Google Scholar.

page 295 note 2 Shown by unfinished chapes in the Isleham hoard (Cambs.), in the Moyses' Hall Museum, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk; compare Archaeologia LXXIII (1923)Google Scholar pl. 49, no. 56.

page 295 note 3 Tylecote, R. F., Metallurgy in Archaeology (London, 1962) 116Google Scholar.

page 295 note 4 Suggested by the experiments of Dr H. Drescher in casting palstaves, and his study of unfinished examples: Die Kunde (NF) VIII (1957) 56 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 296 note 1 E.g. at Jarlshof, Shetland. The matrices there were formed in two separate valves, both enclosed by a clay investment: Curle, A. O., Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. LXVII (1932–1933) 112–24Google Scholar. Others listed by Hodges, H. W. M., Ulster Journ. of Archaeol. (3rd series) XVII (1954) 79Google Scholar.

page 296 note 2 E.g. the rarity of ‘casting seams’ contrasts with their commonness on the corresponding types of the Middle and Late Bronze Age.

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