44-535: The Dover Bronze Age boat is one of fewer than 20 Bronze Age boats so far found in Britain. It dates to 1575–1520 BC, which may make it one of the oldest substantially intact boat in the world (older boat finds are small fragments, some less than a metre square) – though much older ships exist, such as the Khufu ship from 2500 BC. The boat was made using oak planks sewn together with yew lashings. This technique has
88-553: A "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". There was much less migration into Britain during the Iron Age and so it is likely that Celtic had reached Britain before then. The study also found that lactose tolerance rose swiftly in early Iron Age Britain, a thousand years before it became widespread in mainland Europe, which suggests that milk became a very important foodstuff in Britain at this time. Must Farm Bronze Age settlement Must Farm
132-617: A British Chalcolithic when copper was used between the 25th and the 22nd centuries BC, but others do not because production and use were on a small scale. In Ireland, the final Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, but iron metallurgy does not appear until about 550 BC. Around 2500 BC, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain: the Bell Beaker culture . Beaker pottery appears in
176-601: A large prehistoric boat thought to be 3,500 years old. This would place its origin around 1500 BC, in the Middle Bronze Age in England. The boat was buried 200 meters inshore and 6 meters under a road and the burial site stretched out towards buildings. It was decided that it would be too dangerous to dig too near the buildings, so an unknown length of the boat has had to be left under the ground. Previous attempts to remove such boats whole have been unsuccessful, so it
220-469: A large wooden wheel of about 1 m (3.3 ft) in diameter was uncovered at the site. The specimen, dating from 1,100 to 800 years BCE, represents the most complete and earliest of its type found in Britain. The wheel's hub is also present. A horse's spine found nearby suggests the wheel may have been part of a horse-drawn cart. The find "expands our understanding of late Bronze Age technology", said Duncan Wilson , chief executive of Historic England, which
264-576: A long tradition of use in British prehistory; the oldest known examples are the narrower Ferriby boats from east Yorkshire. A 9.5m long section of the boat is on display at Dover Museum . On 28 September 1992, construction workers from Norwest Holst (who were building the new A20 road link between Folkestone and Dover ), working alongside archaeologists from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust , uncovered what remained of
308-531: A major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early Bronze Age Britain and up to 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool may have been replaced with the coming of a people genetically similar to the Beaker people of the Lower Rhine region (modern Netherlands/central-western Germany), which had a high proportion of steppe ancestry . According to the evolutionary geneticist Ian Barnes , "Following the Beaker spread, there
352-483: A migration) into Southern Great Britain around the 12th century BC. The disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even beyond Europe, as most of the great Near Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced severe difficulties), and the Sea Peoples harried the entire Mediterranean basin around that time. Cremation was adopted as a burial practice, with cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in
396-532: A number of occasions before becoming buried, including a split down the eastern side that had been filled with other pieces of wood. All sewn plank boat founds in the region were found in estuaries. They were found in two chronological periods. Six boats from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC have been found. Near the Humber estuary there was one at Kilnsea and three at Ferriby (#1, #2, and #3). Boats from this period were also found at Dover and at Caldicot (#1) on
440-584: A proper sea-going, cross-channel vessel the boat would have to have the curved 'rocker' bottom and the (unproven) pointed bow that only the more modern Dover boat allegedly possesses. Confusingly, the Oakleaf reproduction of the Ferriby boats was given a pointed bow and the Ferriby boats are described by the museum that houses them as having curved rocker bottoms, which sounds much the same as the Dover boat. Little
484-465: A small freshwater palaeochannel and were preserved because of waterlogging . Radiocarbon dating has indicated that the ages of these boats spanned a period of about 1,000 years, with the earliest examples dating to around 1750–1650 BCE . Some of the boats may have been deliberately sunk. They are now preserved at Flag Fen and are available to view on guided tours. Bronze Age woven wooden fish traps and wattle -hurdle fish weirs were found in
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#1732773121227528-510: A small loop or ring to make lashing the two together easier. Groups of unused axes are often found together, suggesting ritual deposits to some, but many archaeologists believe that elite groups collected bronze items and perhaps restricted their use among the wider population. Bronze swords of a graceful "leaf" shape, swelling gently from the handle before coming to a tip, have been found in considerable numbers, along with spear heads and arrow points. Great Britain had large reserves of tin in what
572-652: Is a Bronze Age archaeological site consisting of five houses raised on stilts above a river and built around 950 BC in Cambridgeshire , England. The settlement is exceptionally well preserved because of its sudden destruction by catastrophic fire and subsequent collapse onto oxygen-depleted river silts . The site is on the bed of a now-defunct river in Flag Fen basin, around 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south of Flag Fen itself. The site has been described as "Britain's Pompeii " because of its condition and
616-505: Is an era of British history that spanned from c. 2500–2000 BC until c. 800 BC . Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain . Being categorised as the Bronze Age , it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools. Great Britain in
660-464: Is much harder than copper, by mixing copper with a small amount of tin . With that discovery, the Bronze Age began in Great Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making. The bronze axehead, made by casting , was at first similar to its stone predecessors but then developed a socket for the wooden handle to fit into and
704-533: Is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give a date as late as 2000 BC, and others set 2200 BC as the demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC has been called the "Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age" in recognition of the difficulty of exactly defining the boundary. Some archaeologists recognise
748-426: Is no proof of the boat's overall shape and size, much speculation as to its total length and its shape has been made. The museum shows suggestions, but the boat could easily be little more than has been removed from the ground, or perhaps many metres longer. The width of the boat is significant, being around 2 metres wide it is much wider than dugout canoes of the time and can easily seat two people next to each other. It
792-713: Is now Cornwall and Devon in South West England and thus tin mining began. By around 1600 BC, the South-West experiencing a trade boom, as British tin was exported across Europe. Bronze Age Britons were also skilled at making jewellery from gold , as well as occasional objects like the Rillaton Cup and Mold Cape . Many examples have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of Southern Britain, but they are not as frequent as Irish finds. The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in what
836-604: Is now England were discovered in East Cambridgeshire , where the most important finds were recovered in Isleham (more than 6500 pieces ). The earliest known metalworking building was found at Sigwells, Somerset, England. Several casting mould fragments were fitted to a Wilburton type sword held in Somerset County Museum. They were found in association with cereal grain that has been dated to
880-719: Is plenty of evidence that there was cross-Channel communication, but it is not known what kind of boats actually sailed across. Keith Miller, a regional archaeologist told the BBC that the older Ferriby boats would have been used to cross the North Sea and certainly the Ferriby Heritage Trust describe Ferriby Boat 3 as Europe's first known seacraft. The BBC television programme Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath Pt 2 , broadcast on BBC Two in September 2014, describes
924-524: Is wider than the Ferriby boats, for example. The boat was constructed of oak planks, stitched together with yew withies and also fixed together with wooden wedges driven into cleats carved from the planks. This makes it similar to the Ferriby boats, which are also stitched planks. It is, however, quite different from the Must Farm dugouts, which are not only dug out of one trunk, but the smaller, lightweight ones are made of lighter linden trunks. Whilst in
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#1732773121227968-464: Is yet known about the boat in use as few clues were left with it. According to A History of Ancient Britain , the boat was laid to rest, still in good condition, in a smaller channel off the Dour river and the yew stitches were deliberately cut, leaving it unusable. It was preserved by being covered quickly in silt. The recovered remains are around 9.5 x 2M As part of the boat remains underground and there
1012-464: The Hallstatt culture . In 2021, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the 500-year period from 1300 to 800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul and had higher levels of Early European Farmers ancestry. From 1000 to 875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, which made up around half
1056-566: The Mount Pleasant Phase (2700–2000 BC), along with flat axes and the burial practice of inhumation . People of this period were responsible for building Seahenge , along with the later phases of Stonehenge . Silbury Hill was also built in the early Beaker period. Movement of continental Europeans brought new people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicates that at least some of
1100-510: The 12th century BC by carbon dating . The rich Wessex culture developed in southern Great Britain during that time. The weather, previously warm and dry, became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, which forced the population away from easily-defended sites in the hills and into the fertile valleys . Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. The Deverel-Rimbury culture began to emerge during
1144-586: The Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture . During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury , Stonehenge , Silbury Hill and Must Farm . That has been described as a time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe". There
1188-673: The Ferriby boat as seagoing and describes the tons of cargo it could have taken across the Channel. However, Dover Museum consider that the Dover Bronze Age Boat is the oldest seagoing boat known, at only 1550 BC. They are backed by a different channel and programme from the BBC- Neil Oliver in the Bronze Age episode of A History of Ancient Britain . They are also backed by a Time Team Special , broadcast on 7 September 2014 on UK Channel 4, which stated that to be
1232-581: The Welsh south coast. The other sewn plank boat all date to the eleventh to the ninth centuries BC. Based on radiocarbon dating, Ferriby 1 dates to 1880–1680BC, Ferriby 2 to 1940–1720BC and Ferriby 3 to 2030–1780BC. The River Dour leads straight into the English Channel , so speculation has been made ever since its discovery about whether the Dover boat went to sea and sailed to the Continent. There
1276-433: The ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in that area, but not in northern Britain. The "evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between Britain and mainland Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups". The authors describe this as
1320-560: The archaeological record. According to John T. Koch and others, the Celtic languages developed during the Late Bronze Age period in an intensely-trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age , which included Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal, but that stands in contrast to the more generally-accepted view that the Celtic languages developed earlier than that, with some cultural practices developing in
1364-573: The body. However, even though customs changed, barrows and burial mounds continued to be used during the Bronze Age, with smaller tombs often dug into the primary mounds. There has been debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the "Beaker people" were a race of people that migrated to Britain en masse from the continent or whether a Beaker cultural "package" of goods and behaviour, which eventually spread across most of Western Europe, diffused to Britain's existing inhabitants through trade across tribal boundaries. However one recent study (2017) suggests
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1408-473: The centrepiece of a whole floor in the museum devoted to archaeology. With the boat itself is a modern reconstruction of a section of the boat, to assist in the visitors interpretation of the boat itself. The display won an award in 2000 for archaeological display. First, a full-size three-metre section of the boat was built, experimenting with techniques etc. This is also housed in the Dover Museum with
1452-465: The ground the boat was significantly protected from being destroyed by waterlogging and a cover of silt which protected it from bacteria. After being removed from the ground the boat was kept in a waterlogged state at the Mary Rose Trust at Portsmouth . After a long process of preservation the boat returned to Dover Museum to be re-assembled in 1998. The boat is displayed in a glass case as
1496-408: The individual, rather on the ancestors as a collective. For example, in the Neolithic era, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead. The 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual barrows , also commonly known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as tumuli, or sometimes in cists covered with cairns . They were often buried with a beaker alongside
1540-469: The new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland . The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people and cultural change was significant. Many of the early henge sites seem to have been adopted by the newcomers. Furthermore, a fundamentally different approach to burying the dead began. In contrast to the Neolithic practice of communal burials, the Bronze Age society undergoes an apparent shift towards focusing on to
1584-582: The original. Then a half-size reconstruction of the Dover Boat was completed in Dover in 2012; however, due to time constraints it was assembled using modern silicone caulking materials and stitched with modern ropes. Hopes to launch it at the time failed when the boat immediately shipped a lot of water, but the boat has nevertheless been touring around the Channel area in different countries. The boat, initially named BC 1550 has since been officially named after one of its builders, Ole Crumlin-Pederson. The boat
1628-424: The platform on which they sat then slid into the river, where the fire was extinguished and the buildings and objects within them were preserved in the silt . About half of the settlement is thought to have been lost to modern-day quarrying. Objects recovered include pots still containing food, textiles woven from lime tree bark and other plant fibres , sections of wattle walls, and glass beads . In 2016
1672-694: The same channel, together with metalwork including swords and spears . {{{annotations}}} In September 2015, the University of Cambridge 's Cambridge Archaeological Unit began a dig , eventually covering 1,100 square metres (1,300 sq yd), the details of which were publicly disclosed in January 2016. Historic England funded a £1.1 million project to excavate the site to gain as much knowledge of Bronze Age life in Britain as possible. Archaeologists found two roundhouses , from about 1000–800 BCE, and concluded that they were damaged by fire and that
1716-647: The second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400–1100 BC) to exploit the wetter conditions. Cornwall was a major source of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the Great Orme mine in Northern Wales . Social groups appear to have been tribal, but growing complexity and hierarchies became apparent. There is evidence of a relatively large-scale disruption of cultural patterns (see Late Bronze Age collapse ), which some scholars think may indicate an invasion (or at least
1760-646: Was a population in Britain that for the first time had ancestry and skin and eye pigmentation similar to Britons today". Several regions of origin have been postulated for the Beaker culture , notably the Iberian Peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. Part of the Beaker culture brought the skill of refining metal to Great Britain. At first, they made items from copper , but from around 2150 BC , smiths had discovered how to make bronze , which
1804-404: Was co-funding the project. As of August 2016 , the archaeology had been removed and the site reburied to be left sealed. In 2019 researchers at Cambridge and Bristol universities revealed the results of a study of human and dog coprolites found at the site. They discovered the presence of fish tapeworms , echinostoma worms , capillaria worms and giant kidney worms . The research shows
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1848-432: Was decided to cut the boat into sections and remove it and reassemble it afterwards. After nearly a month of excavation 9.5 metres of the boat was eventually recovered. Depending on different views of the true size of the complete boat, this 9.5 metres could be up to two thirds of the full size of the boat. The boat had been partially damaged by the construction of a Roman harbor wall. It showed signs of having been repaired on
1892-876: Was later dismantled and reassembled using Bronze Age materials consisting of moss mixed with animal fat as caulking, and was stitched together with yew lashings. It has now been sailed out from Dover Harbour and was filmed for a Time Team Special for the UK Channel 4. An almost full-size reconstruction of a sewn plank boat was created in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in 2012–13, launched in March 2013 and sailed round Falmouth Harbour. 51°07′25″N 1°18′51″E / 51.1236°N 1.3142°E / 51.1236; 1.3142 Bronze Age Britain Bronze Age Britain
1936-567: Was named Best Archaeological Project and Best Archaeological Discovery at the 2012 British Archaeological Awards , and Best Discovery at the 2016 Awards. An article describing the settlement won the Antiquity Prize 2020. Wooden posts were first recognised at the site in 1999, leading to preliminary excavations in 2004 and 2006. Early finds at the site include a rapier and a sword in 1969. Between 2011 and 2012, eight Bronze Age log boats were discovered. The boats were found in
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