Bronze Age Britain

The Bronze Age in Great Britain spanned from c. 2500–2200 BC until c. 800 BC. Lasting for about 1,700 years, it followed the Neolithic era (New Stone Age) and was in turn followed by the British Iron Age. It was marked by the use of copper and then bronze tools and other artifacts by the prehistoric peoples of Britain. The beginning of bronze metalworking in Britain is associated with the arrival of the Bell Beaker culture. The spread of this Bell Beaker culture to Britain was linked with the Indo-European migrations and a massive genetic shift, resulting in about 90% of Britain's gene pool being replaced within a few hundred years (from 2400 BC to 2000 BC), as people with Early European Farmer ancestry were mostly replaced by people with Western Steppe Herder ancestry. The Wessex culture was the main early Bronze Age culture in central and southern Britain.

During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be built or modified, including such sites as Avebury, Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and Must Farm. That has been described as a time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe". Britain was the first region in Europe to fully adopt tin-bronze technology, in the period 2200–2100 BC, and southwestern Britain was a major source of tin for mainland Europe and the Mediterranean. It has been proposed that Celtic language and culture emerged in Britain during the Bronze Age.

History

Early Bronze Age (EBA), c.