When Britain came out of the Stone Age

The Bronze Age began in Britain in about 2000BC and lasted until about 650BC. It is generally thought that the innovative bronze tools and weapons which were the mark of this age came from Europe, where by 2000BC the Bronze Age was already in motion, with the bronze trade centred in Crete.

Bronze Age society was divided into chiefdoms which were based around a largely agricultural economy. Trade between these groups would have been well developed, while established transport by river and sea would have meant tribes could do business with continental Europe.

Production of textiles was also under way. Women wore long woollen skirts with short tunics while men wore kneelength wrap-around kilts as well as tunics and cloaks. They were cleanshaven and long-haired.

Bronze Age shoes were sophisticated string net constructions which closed over the ankle at the pull of one string and fitted all sizes of foot. A Bronze Age man found in the Alps in 1991 wore shoes with bearskin soles and deerskin uppers.

In the early Bronze Age the dead were buried in large sites, but by its later years the land was too important for agricultural use and so bodies were cremated. Families would live in a thatched clay "roundhouse" with a fire in the middle and a chimney directly above it.

Farming had become more sophisticated, with a seasonal slaughter of cattle and sheep for the winter. Finds of goat and horse bones suggest these had been domesticated, and by the end of the period harnesses were common. Bronze sickles were used for harvesting grain and simple ploughs were in use in some areas. Bronze Age people used bogs as natural refrigerators to keep butter fresh.

Work on Stonehenge began just before the start of the Bronze Age, towards the close of the New Stone Age. In the early part of the Bronze Age some eighty bluestones, from South Wales, were added.

The Bronze Age Thames was wider and wilder than the river we know today. It was unrestricted by embankments and there were no bridges. It formed a barrier between north and south and was an important navigation route.