This archive lists similar to 8000 Bronze Age British axeheads, alongside associated compositional analyses, isotopic measurements and radiocarbon dates. It integrates several major existing data collection efforts and published catalogues, whilst also providing a self-consistent basic typology. It is archived as four related flat-sheet text files and could be reused to support quantitative assessment of geographic and temporal patterns in metalwork style, deposition, recovery, hoard co-occurrence and/ or metallurgicalcompositions to name just a few salient topics.

In July 1834 William Beswick, the local landowner, and a group of friends opened a barrow at Gristhorpe, just north of Filey, North Yorkshire. The Gristhorpe log-coffin burial is one of 75 recorded in Britain that range in date from the twenty-third to seventeenth centuries cal bc. Gristhorpe Man was a physically active male who had attained the prime of life, being at least 36 to 45 years and probably much older at the time of his death. Gristhorpe Man’s origins and diet were investigated using a combination of stable isotope measurements. Strontium, lead, and phosphate oxygen isotope ratios from the mandibular second molar tooth enamel, which mineralizes between the ages of two-and-a-half and eight, are all consistent with origins on the Jurassic silicate rocks of the Scarborough region but not Jurassic limestones or the Cretaceous chalk of the Wolds.

The Boxgrove project burst into vibrant life in the early 1980s, challenging and antagonising the academic archaeological establishment in equal measure, its student leader inspired by, and part of, the contemporary punk milieu and its assault on the wider establishment. I don’t recall corduroys, but there were definitely bovver boots and braces as the shaven-headed Mark Roberts held forth in packed lecture halls, providing overwhelming proof that the history of Britain’s earliest human occupation needed substantial revision, and revealing the remarkable details of the substantial landscape of early Palaeolithic occupation preserved at the Boxgrove quarry complex; it was London (Institute of Archaeology) calling. However it wasn’t just the style, it was also the substance. Boxgrove overturned everything. Here was irrefutable evidence of human presence in Britain before the Anglian glaciation, 500,000 years ago in the interglacial period MIS 13; and not just a few suitably-crude lithic implements, but a prolific industry of large, symmetric and aesthetic ovate handaxes with sophisticated features such as tranchet sharpening. And, beyond the technical details of dating and typology, the behavioural evidence from the Boxgrove landscape challenged widely-held views that these early hominins were simpletons living in a mental world with a 15-minute time-depth, responding expediently to the appearance of a carcass or an injured animal, desperately casting around for a rock to chip, or hurl. Rather, the accumulating evidence from Boxgrove was showing all the signs of behaviour similar to much-later hominins, with, for instance, evidence of organised hunting, prior protected access to large herbivore carcasses, hide skinning and preparation, and the planned and organised use of the diverse resources afforded by the varying local landscape.

This chapter introduces the individuals in the BPP Database, focusing on those dating to the Project's core period of 2500-1500 BC (rather than those found to date earlier or later: see Appendices 1 and 2 for thes), and especially those belonging to the Beaker period, from the 25th century to the 18th century BC, It starts with a regioin-by-region review of the individuals who were studied, then considers the range of funerary practices that are attested. Individual types of grave good associated with the BPP individuals are then discussed in detail, and the chapter finishes with some reflections on anspects of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age funerary practice and material culture that finds echoes in Middle Neolitic Britain

A previously unresearched Early Bronze Age dagger-grave found in 1989 at Racton, West Sussex, is profiled here through a range of studies. The dagger, the only grave accompaniment, is of the transitional' Ferry Fryston type, this example being of bronze rather than copper. Bayesian analysis of relevant radiocarbon dates is used to refine the chronology of the earliest bronze in Britain. While the Ferry Fryston type was current in the earlier half of the twenty-second century bc, the first butt-riveted bronze daggers did not emerge until the second half. The Racton dagger is also distinguished by its elaborate rivet-studded hilt, an insular innovation with few parallels. The excavated skeleton was that of a senior male, buried according to the appropriate rites of the time. Isotopic profiling shows an animal-protein rich diet that is typical for the period, but also the likelihood that he was brought up in a region of older silicate sedimentary rocks well to the west or north west of Racton. He had suffered injury at or close to the time of death; a slice through the distal end of his left humerus would have been caused by a fine-edged blade, probably a dagger. Death as a result of combat-contested leadership is explored in the light of other injuries documented among Early Bronze Age burials. Codified elite-level combat could help to explain the apparent incongruity between the limited efficacy of early dagger forms and their evident weapon-status.

SummaryMulti‐object metalwork deposits provide the foundation block for many branches of enquiry, yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to the methodological issues that underlie their analysis and interpretation. The framework outlined here aims to circumvent some of the dangers of circular argument inherent in the concepts of metalwork ‘stages’, ‘phases’ or ‘traditions’, as well as in assumptions of pan‐regional synchronizations in metalwork developments. The term ‘Assemblage’ is defined to provide a carefully circumscribed but interpretatively neutral framework for the study of metalwork groups linked by association. Assemblage subdivisions allow significant internal variations to be explored for temporal, social and cultural meanings. These analytical devices used in conjunction with ‘bubble chronologies’ allow flexibility in detailed interpretation whilst holding on to a consensually agreed near‐empirical structure. Consideration is also given to the problem of regional phase groups of metalwork that lack associations and thus preclude Assemblage definition. The case of the Penard Assemblage is salient owing to the debate about whether the ‘Wallington complex’ should be considered an integral part of it. Although the ‘Assemblage/Aspect/Group’ structure applied here can accommodate some divergence in views, available evidence supports typo‐chronological coherence between Penard and Wallington material. Occasional associations used recently to justify a ‘Limehouse phase’ between Penard to Wilburton metalwork are just as easily understood as representing a transition towards 1100 bc. The lack of associations for the Limehouse family of swords, largely contemporary with late Penard, is argued to be an accentuation of the already rare occurrence of swords in earlier associations. The depositional phenomena of the Penard Assemblage are instead centred on an array of palstaves, rapiers, spearheads, shields and gold ornaments.

Abstract The appearance of the distinctive ‘Beaker package’ marks an important horizon in British prehistory, but was it associated with immigrants to Britain or with indigenous converts? Analysis of the skeletal remains of 264 individuals from the British Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age is revealing new information about the diet, migration and mobility of those buried with Beaker pottery and related material. Results indicate a considerable degree of mobility between childhood and death, but mostly within Britain rather than from Europe. Both migration and emulation appear to have had an important role in the adoption and spread of the Beaker package.

The discovery in 2001 by a metal detectorist of the now famous gold cup from Ringlemere Farm in east Kent prompted a four-year survey and excavation project led by the British Museum. This volume provides a detailed assessment of M1, the barrow where the gold cup was found, focusing particularly on the extraordinary Late Neolithic ritual and occupation site that lay preserved beneath the barrow. Readers will no doubt have bells ringing in their memories – has this site not been published before? A preliminary account of the site was published in 2006 (Needham et al. 2006), once freely available online but now seemingly only through the National Archive web archive service since the British Museum revamped their website. That volume included a chapter on excavations at the barrow, with a detailed comparison to other similar Late Neolithic henge sites. However, this new volume presents the site for the first time in detail, superseding the account and discussion in that earlier volume, which otherwise largely focused on the gold cup itself. It should be noted that, despite 342 pages of densely packed data and discussion, this new volume does not include the extensive Anglo-Saxon cemetery of 60 graves and a sunken-featured building discovered at the site, nor the excavation of nearby round barrow M3; both await future publications. Setting out the relationship between the existing and future publications of the project would have been helpful to orientate readers, as would a more detailed contents list, and a list of figures, plates, and tables.

Excavations at Trecastell, Powys, south Wales, in 2007 yielded a copper halberd complete with its haft-grip. This has major implications for the mode of hafting halberds, but the discovery has also prompted a reconsideration of insular halberds in their north-west European context. Understanding the relationships between different types of halberd and different regional groups continues to be hampered by the dearth of good dating evidence, but the creation of better classifications for British and Irish weapons and new radiocarbon dates on two examples, one being Trecastell, have allowed a new developmental scheme to be advanced.The emergence of metal-headed halberds is considered more generally. While it is acknowledged that halberd-like implements pre-existed in other materials in some parts of Europe, it is argued that the appearance of metal-headed halberds depended on the transmission of a particular set of metallurgical and related skills. A new model for the vigorous uptake of halberds on a regional basis helps explain the patchiness and anachronism of halberd hotspots.The Trecastell halberd adds to one of the significant concentrations of the weapon type in Britain and prompts a more general review of the earliest metalwork from Wales and the Marches. For the Chalcolithic, halberds are instrumental in identifying a major contrast in depositional behaviour; this contrast dissolves at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age when a ‘new deposition ground’ is established. The former is attributed to the existence of a regional group across much of the region for whom the halberd served as a cultural icon, while the latter may relate to the demise of this enshrined value for the halberd.

Two round barrows were excavated in 1982–3 at Church Lawton near to the eastern edge of the Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain. One of the barrows was defined by a ring of nine glacial boulders and it is possible that these monoliths initially formed a free-standing stone circle. The remains constitute a rare example of the use of stone to enhance a Bronze Age barrow in the lowlands of central western England. Beneath the mound demarcated by the boulders were the burnt remains of a small, roughly rectangular turf stack associated with fragments of clay daub and pieces of timber. No direct evidence of burial was found within the monument. A radiocarbon date suggests that the structural sequence began sometime in the late 3rd–early 2nd millennium cal bc . The other barrow was principally a two-phased construction and contained urned and un-urned cremation burials. A battle-axe was placed next to one of the burials. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the cremations and associated deposits indicate that individuals were being interred from the late 3rd or early 2nd millennium cal bc , with the practice continuing until the middle of the 2nd millennium. The barrows formed part of a cemetery, consisting of three known mounds.