Inheritance

The subdivision of prehistory into periods has long been recognised as a mechanism for description of what is essentially a continuum of development. Yet some of the subdivisions are of much more significance than others, for example the introduction of agriculture. For the period under consideration here it is not therefore that the widespread adoption of iron which is necessary significant but perhaps the transition from ‘monument dominated landscapes and mobile settlement patterns to that of more permanent settlement and a greater emphasis on agricultural production ' (English Heritage 1991, 36). It was considered that the onset of the Middle Bronze Age defined this in cultural terms and, more importantly in physical evidence terms (Ellison 1981). Whatever the merits of this concept for other regions, or in terms of absolute chronology, or in terms of conservatism in material culture and way of life, the study area has now provided data with which to reconsider this concept. It is considered that the transition described above is most evident from the late Bronze Age rather than the middle Bronze Age within the study area. Chronology The chronology of the period is not especially well documented in terms of radiocarbon dates, when considered against the relative wealth of excavated deposits in the later Bronze Age. Some of this i