Here are some interesting sites from the Early Bronze Age, 4200 years ago!
- Big Moor, Derbyshire
- To the west of the Barbrook stream lies a farmstead of stone round houses and enclosures called Swine Sty dated to 3,900 years ago. An earlier wooden farm was found underneath the stone one. On the hill above the farm are the stone walls of the fields. Just over the stream on the east are the burial cairns and stone circles used by this family of early bronze age farmers. This is a rare landscape of a whole farmstead and its religious sites, and represents the spread of population onto the uplands in a warmer climate.
- Bush Barrow, Wiltshire
- A rich burial in a round barrow excavated in 1808. The body had a decorated diamond-shaped sheet of gold on the chest, a bronze dagger and spear, a wooden shield, and a stone mace (a rounded cobble of stone at the end of a long wooden handle, possibly a symbol of power or authority). The burial dates to 4,000 years ago.
- Calanais, Western Isles
- A neolithic stone circle of 13 stones surrounding a central 5 metre tall stone was enlarged in the Early Bronze Age by adding an avenue of stone running northwards, and single lines of stones running east, west and south away from the centre. A burial cairn was built inside the circle. Calanais is one of the most striking stone circles in Britain, with the shape of slightly bent cross when seen from above.
- North Ferriby, Yorkshire
- A boat built 3,900 years ago was found here on the northern bank of the River Humber. It was 2 metres wide and 13 metres long, with room for 18 people with paddles. It was probably for use in rivers or the Humber estuary. The boat was made of oak planks, stitched together with twine made from yew.
- Seahenge, Norfolk
- Discovered in 1998, Seahenge is not actually a henge, and its proper name is Holme next-the-Sea. It is a circle of 55 upright wooden posts with an upside down tree stump in the middle. The posts form a complete wall around the stump, 7metres across. A hidden gap in the wall allowed someone to get inside. Tree rings tell us it was built 4,059 years ago in 2049 BC. Marks of axes on the wood show that it was built by over 50 different people and so belonged to a community not a powerful single person. It is a religious site of some kind, but we have no idea what went on there or what it means. The site was being worn away by the sea and its excavation was very controversial. Some local people wanted it to be kept on the beach as part of their local heritage. Some modern pagan groups felt the religious nature of the site was being destroyed by excavation.
- Stonehenge, Wiltshire
- Most of Stonehenge dates to the late Neolithic, but the bluestones from Preseli were moved and placed in a horseshoe inside the circle of trilithons in the Early Bronze Age, and the monument reached the form we see it today. It probably fell out of use around 3,600 years ago.
- Catholme, Staffordshire
- From the Late Neolithic and throughout the Early Bronze Age, the site was used as a ‘ritual landscape’ with barrows, cursus monuments and henges placed between the Rivers Trent, Tame and Mease. Later, from the Iron Age, the site is settled with evidence for buildings and other structures. The project is called ‘Where Rivers Meet’.
