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A barrow or earthwork just half a mile south of Stonehenge
contained the remains of a Bronze Age man with three
daggers at his side. One had a hilt decorated with hundreds
of tiny gold nails. These barrows were an important
part of the burial ritual probably only for prominent
members of Bronze Age society and often contained a
large variety of items known as grave goods. Bronze
is an alloy which appeared in Britain about 2300BC.
It helped produce tools with a harder sharper cutting
edge. A variety of styles of axehead have been excavated.
 Sheep
were bred for meat and for their wool. A barrow or earthwork
at Kelleythorpe in Yorkshire revealed a length of cloth
beneath a skeleton and three jet buttons at the throat
suggesting the fastenings of a cloak. Animal skins were
also used. Copper and bone pins found behind the skull
in graves containing female skeletons suggested Bronze
Age women sometimes wore their hair in a bun.
 Collared
urns appeared across Britain in the early Bronze Age.
Later in the period a wide range of pottery and ceramics
was in use. In the north of England bowl shaped items
were popular while in the south items often had a more
vase like appearance.Tiny vessels called pygmy or incense
cups have been found in graves accompanying cremation
urns suggesting they had some unexplained role in the
funeral ritual.
 The
period saw radical changes in the climate of England
and in the way settlements were constructed. Volcanic
activity in Iceland about 1160BC affected the climate
of Scotland and northern England leading to an exodus
of people to the south. Open settlements in more southerly
areas were fortified for the first time as population
pressures increased. A settlement from the late Bronze
Age at Springfield Lyons in Essex had a circular living
area with imber-built thatched homes defended by a ditch,
six causeways and a bank topped with a timber wall.
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