The Deverel–Rimbury culture was a name given to an
archaeological culture
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...
of the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
Middle
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
in southern England. It is named after two
barrow sites in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
and dates to between ''c''. 1400 BC and 1200 BC.
Site characteristics
The period is characterised by the incorrectly-named
Celtic fields,
palisade
A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade.
Etymo ...
d cattle enclosures, small
roundhouses and
cremation burials either in
urnfield
The Urnfield culture () 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 placing their ashes in urns, which ...
cemeteries or under low, round barrows. Cremations from this period were also inserted into pre-existing barrows. The people were
arable and livestock farmers.
Pottery
Deverel–Rimbury pottery is characterised by distinctive globular vessels with tooled decoration and thick-walled, so-called "bucket urns" with cordoned, usually finger-printed decoration.
In the southern counties of the UK, fabric is usually coarsely flint-tempered.
In East Anglia and further northeast grog-tempering is typical.
Terminology
The term "Deverel-Rimbury" is now mostly used to refer to the pottery types, as
archaeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
today believe that Deverel–Rimbury does not represent a single homogeneous cultural group but numerous disparate groups who shared a varying range of cultural traits.
References
External links
Deverel-Rimbury ware at the Museum of London
Archaeological cultures of Europe
Bronze Age Britain
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