The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
period in
Prehistoric Europe
Prehistoric Europe is Europe with human presence but before the start of recorded history, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic. As history progresses, considerable regional irregularities of cultural development emerge and increase. The region o ...
of approximately 1300–700 BC that includes different cultures in Britain, France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.
Trade
The Atlantic Bronze Age is marked by economic and cultural exchange that led to the high degree of cultural similarity exhibited by the coastal communities from Central Portugal to
Galicia,
Armorica
Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; br, Arvorig, ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast ...
,
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
and
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, including the frequent use of stones as
chevaux-de-frise
The ''cheval de frise'' (plural: ''chevaux de frise'' , " Frisian horses") is a defensive obstacle, which existed in a number of forms and were employed in various applications. These included underwater constructions used to prevent the pas ...
, the establishment of
cliff castles, or the domestic architecture sometimes characterized by the
roundhouses.
Commercial contacts extended from Sweden and Denmark to the Mediterranean.
The period was defined by a number of distinct regional centres of metal production, unified by a regular maritime exchange of some of their products. The major centres were southern England and Ireland, north-western France, and western Iberia.
The items related to this culture are frequently found forming hoards, or they are deposited in ritual areas,
usually watery contexts: rivers, lakes and bogs. Among the more noted items belonging to this cultural complex we can count the socketed and double ring bronze axes, sometimes buried forming large hoards in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
and Galicia; war gear, as lunate spearheads, V-notched shields, and a variety of
bronze swords —among them carp's-tongue ones— usually found deposited in lakes, rivers or rocky outcrops; and the elites' feasting gear: articulated roasting spits, cauldrons, and flesh hooks,
found from central Portugal to Scotland.
The origins of the
Celts
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...
were attributed to this period in 2008 by
John T. Koch
John T. Koch is an American academic, historian and linguist who specializes in Celtic studies, especially prehistory and the early Middle Ages. He is the editor of the five-volume ''Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia'' (2006, ABC Clio). He ...
and supported by
Barry Cunliffe, who argued for the past development of Celtic as an Atlantic
lingua franca, later spreading into mainland Europe.
They argue that communities adopted early Late Bronze Age
Urnfield
The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...
(Bronze D and Hallstatt A) elite status markers such as grip-tongue swords and sheet-bronze metalwork, along with new specialist know-how needed for their production and ritual knowledge about their 'proper' treatment upon deposition.
which they see as indicating possible processes linked to language shift.
[ In 2013, Koch saw this east to west elite contact as the simplest explanation for the genesis of Celtic languages with a ]Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...
homeland in west-central Europe. However, this stands in contrast to what remains the more generally accepted view that Celtic origins lie with the Central European Hallstatt C culture.
Gallery
File:Bronze Age bracelets and neckrings with pot from Milton Keynes (FindID 509421).jpg, Gold bracelets and neckrings from Milton Keynes, England
File:Museo Pontevedra, Ed. Sarmiento 02-12c.JPG, A Bronze Age gold hoard: ''Tesouro de Caldas'', Galicia, Spain
File:Late Bronze Age Gold Torque from Grunty Fen in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.jpg, Gold torque from Stretham, England
File:P1010042se.jpg, Bronze weapons from Lanzahíta, Spain
File:Epee et lance BA.jpg, Bronze Age swords, France
File:Caergwrle bowl.jpg, The Caergwrle Bowl, Wales, c. 1200 BC
File:Museo Arqueolóxico do Castelo de San Antón, A Coruña.jpg, Casco de Leiro
The gold Casco de Leiro ("Helmet of Leiro") is a ritual hemispherical cap probably dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age (''circa'' 1,000 to 800 BC) in the town of Leiro (municipality of Rianxo, Galicia, Spain). The circumstances of its discov ...
, Galicia, Spain
File:Pulseira da Urdiñeira, Museo de Lugo.jpg, Gold bracelet from Urdiñeira, Galicia
File:Atlantic Bronze Age riveted cauldrons. Left Cantabria, Spain. Right Chiseldon, UK.jpg, Bronze cauldrons. Left , Spain. Right Chiseldon
Chiseldon is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It takes its name from the Old English cisel dene, or gravel valley, being noted in the Domesday Book as ''Chiseldene''.
The village lies on the edge of ...
, England.
File:Treasure case 04.2, Middle Bronze Age hoard from Burton, Wrexham (FindID 436588-323099).jpg, Gold and bronze hoard from Wrexham, Wales
File:Ceinture en or MAN.jpg, Gold torque or belt from Guînes, France, 1300-1150 BC
File:Torque or strié.jpg, Gold torque from Guînes, Pas-de-Calais, France.
File:Deposito da Samieira.JPG, ''Deposito da Samieira'', a hoard of Galician Bronze Age axes. Museo de Pontevedra
Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the '' Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality wh ...
File:Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 1898-1-1 - Estela de Solana de Cabañas.jpg, Stele of Logrosan, Extremadura, Spain.
File:Ornaments from the late Bronze Age Adabrock hoard, Isle of Lewis.jpg, Ornaments from the Adabrock hoard, Scotland
File:Gold torque from the "Tesoro de Berzocana".jpg, Gold torque from the Treasure of Berzocana, Extremadura, Spain
File:Sword bronze age.JPG, Ceremonial bronze dirk, France, c. 1300 BC
File:Dirks in BM.jpg, Dirks from England and France
File:Brazalete da Urdiñeira, Museo de Lugo.jpg, Brazalete da Urdiñeira, Spain
File:Torque - Man - Saint-Germain-en-Laye - 27 mars 2017.jpg, Gold torc, Saint-Jean-Trolimon, France
File:Display of bronze age finds, Musée de Préhistoire, Carnac, 2019-09-05-3.jpg
File:Five Bronze Age jewellery items from the Milton Keynes Hoard (FindID 509421).jpg
See also
* Magacela stele
* Bronze Age Europe
* Armorican Tumulus culture
* Argaric culture
The Argaric culture, named from the type site El Argar near the town of Antas, in what is now the province of Almería in southeastern Spain, is an Early Bronze Age culture which flourished between c. 2200 BC and 1550 BC.
The Argaric culture ...
* Bronze Age Britain
* Cornish Bronze Age
The Cornish Bronze Age is an era of the history of Cornwall that spanned the period from 2400 BCE to c. 800 BCE. It was preceded by the Cornish Neolithic, and followed by the Cornish Iron Age. It is characterized by the introduction and wide ...
* Urnfield culture
The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...
* Nordic Bronze Age
The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 2000/1750–500 BC.
The Nordic Bronze Age culture emerged about 1750 BC as a continuation of the Battle Axe culture (th ...
* Tumulus culture
__NOTOC__
The Tumulus culture (German::de:Mittlere Bronzezeit, ''Hügelgräberkultur'') dominated Central Europe during the European Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age ( 1600 to 1300 BC).
It was the descendant of the Unetice culture. Its heartl ...
* Unetice culture
The Únětice culture or Aunjetitz culture ( cs, Únětická kultura, german: Aunjetitzer Kultur, pl, Kultura unietycka) is an archaeological culture at the start of the Central European Bronze Age, dated roughly to about 2300–1600BC. The epon ...
References
External links
Spaniards search for legendary Tartessos in a marsh
Moor Sands finds, including a remarkably well preserved and complete sword which has parallels with material from the Seine basin of northern France
{{Bronze Age footer
2nd-millennium BC establishments
2nd-millennium BC disestablishments
Archaeological cultures of Southwestern Europe
Archaeological cultures of Western Europe
Archaeological cultures in Belgium
Archaeological cultures in England
Archaeological cultures in France
Archaeological cultures in Ireland
Archaeological cultures in Portugal
Archaeological cultures in Scotland
Archaeological cultures in Spain
Bronze Age cultures of Europe
Bronze Age England
Bronze Age France
Bronze Age Ireland
Bronze Age Portugal
Bronze Age Scotland
Bronze Age Spain
Bronze Age Wales