by Monique Barb -

The peoples of the Middle East were using metals at a time when our ancestors were using flint and stone. But in time the idea of using metals spread from the Middle East to Europe and eventually to Britain. The first metal users to settle in this country were the Beaker people. They knew how to use copper and bronze and made daggers and axes from these metals.

The Beaker people took the lands of the Windmill Hill peoples and settled in southern England before 1800 B.C. They have been called the Beaker people because the pots they made resembled beakers. Their everyday life was similar to that of the Neolithic peoples and they buried their dead in barrows. The barrows of the Bronze Age, however, were round and differed from the Neolithic Long Barrows in that they u sually contained a single burial.

The Bronze Age lasted for over 1200 years or more and during this immense period of time there were many changes. Sites in various parts of Britain have been excavated and have thrown light on different peoples with distinctive ways of living. The Wessex people lived in southern England about 1500 B.C., and were led by powerful chieftains who were skilful organizers-capable of building mighty monuments such as at Stonehenge. Their ladies enjoyed fine jewellery, and Egyptian beads and Baltic amber show the extent to which they traded with distant lands.

Sometime about 800 B.C., a new wave of invaders called the Celts brought with them an invention of great importance. This was the plough. The Celtic farmers used oxen to pull their ploughs and consequently could cultivate the land more effectively than earlier peoples had managed to do with primitive hoes and digging sticks. Because of this the Celts paid more attention to cultivation than to herding and they often lived in small villages. These villages were collections of round beehive huts, thatched with straw, about 6 meters in diameter. They were constructed from timber and mud and usually had a single entrance. The huts were surrounded by timber fences or stockades and beyond the village the farmers cultivated square plots of land which they sowed with wheat or barley. They still continued to keep cattle and sheep like the people before them and they used flint tools despite their knowledge of metals.

Here are some questions to answer on the History of Man Forum

1. Why do you think the Celtic farmers built stockades round their villages?

2. Where were the metals mined? How were they smelted? What everyday objects used today are made from tin, coppet or bronze?

3. Why do you think they used flint to barb their arrowheads? Why did they not use bronze?

4. What are the disadvantages of using bronze for tools? What are the advantages? What are the advantages of using bronze rather than copper or tin?
The Bronze Age written by Monique Barb for FamousWhy.com
FamousWhy.com - Famous People ... Famous Regions, a Lot Of Articles and Free Software Downloads
The Bronze Age Image Source : wikipedia.org

---

Tags: bronze age, arrowheads, middle east, history, britain, wessex

[edit tags]

Category: Education  - ( Education Archive)

Date Added: 30 September '07

---

Add a link to this page on any related website, blog or forum using this code :

---