The Ewart Park Phase is a period of the later
Bronze Age Britain.
It is named after a founder's
hoard discovered in
Ewart Park in
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land ...
and is the twelfth in a sequence of industrial stages that cover the period 3000 BC to 600 BC.
The Ewart Park phase dates from 800 to 700 BC, preceded by the
Wilburton complex in the south and the
Wallington complex and
Poldar phase in the north. There are several regional sub groups including the
Carp's Tongue complex in the south east, the
Llantwit-Stogursey tradition in south Wales, the
Broadward complex in the
Welsh Marches, the
Heathery Burn tradition in the north and the Scottish
Duddington,
Covesea, and
Ballimore traditions. The Irish parallel is the
Dowris Phase.
Alloying metal with
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
became a common practice during the period and numerous hoards date to this period. In common with the continental
Hallstatt culture, horse harnesses and vehicle fittings were developed and links with the late
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 ...
and Hallstatt early C are apparent.
Recently, the Ewart Park Phase, and related Atlantic phases, have come to be seen as the probable point of origin of some developments in metalwork, that then spread widely across inland continental Europe. This reverses the previously assumed direction of travel. The types concerned include swords, winged
chape
Chape has had various meanings in English, but the predominant one is a protective fitting at the bottom of a scabbard or sheath for a sword or dagger (10 in the diagram). Historic blade weapons often had leather scabbards with metal fittings a ...
s and buckets.
Ewart Park Sword
According to the Portable Antiquities Scheme:
"Most Bronze Age swords in museum collections in Britain come from the Ewart Park Phase. Generally these swords have a bulging shape in the blade at the midway point before narrowing towards the shoulders and the terminal which is fan shaped. Size and number of rivets vary greatly. These swords developed from the Wilburton swords with little influence from the continent and it appears they first occurred in Northern Britain."
The Ewart Park phase was succeeded by the
Llyn Fawr Phase which is parallel to Hallstatt C proper.
References
{{Bronze Age footer
Periods of the British Bronze Age