Aspects of the Bronze Age in the Atlantic Archipelago and Beyond

This volume presents 21 peer-reviewed studies on the Bronze Age in Ireland, Britain, and beyond. Covering themes like technology, trade, and identity, it offers fresh insights into metalworking, burial practices, and landscape use, making it a key reference for Atlantic Bronze Age research.

Aspects of the Bronze Age in the Atlantic Archipelago and Beyond presents twenty-one contributions, mostly originating from the Belfast Bronze Age Forum of 2013, supplemented with new research to create an unusually coherent collection of peer-reviewed studies. Far more than typical conference proceedings, this volume offers a benchmark exploration of the Bronze Age in Ireland, Britain, and its wider European context. Organised into three thematic sections-Concepts, Chronologies and Connections; Mining, Metalworking and Artefact Studies; and Landscape, Settlement and Rock Art-the book traces the threads of technology, exchange, and identity that ran throughout Atlantic Europe. In the introductory contribution, the editor revisits the influential notion of the ‘Atlantic Bronze Age’, charting how this concept evolved and morphed over time, while also questioning models such as the ‘Celtic from the West’ hypothesis. Other contributions highlight the significance of local dynamics within this broader zone: the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and Ireland’s western reaches emerge as striking case studies of communities negotiating contact, isolation, and innovation. The volume also showcases cutting-edge archaeological science, from tracing copper sources at the Great Orme and at Derrycarhoon, to analyses of cauldrons, razors, halberds and sword moulds, revealing both technological sophistication and ritual dimensions of material culture. Papers on hillforts, burnt mounds, and reused rock art further illuminate places of gathering, memory, and transformation in the Bronze Age landscape. Praised by one of its reviewers as ‘a vital reference point for Atlantic Bronze Age studies’, this volume combines breadth with depth, presenting fresh discoveries alongside critical reflections on old debates. Reissued here in a new edition, it remains indispensable for students, researchers, and anyone interested in the social and cultural worlds of Bronze Age Europe.

Concepts, Chronologies and Connections

Dirk Brandherm - Almost lost between the lines: the concept of the Atlantic Bronze Age

Sabine Gerloff and Brendan O'Connor - A scheme for the British Bronze Age by C.F.C. Hawkes

Katharine Sawyer - Dating the entrance graves and cists of the Isles of Scilly

Rachel J. Crellin - The emergence of a Bronze Age on the Isle of Man

Alice Rogers - One foot in sea, and one on shore: movement along the British North Sea coastline in the Early Bronze Age

Catriona Gibson, Peter Bray, Kerri Cleary, Fernando Fernandez Palacios and John T. Koch - Mapping the flow: introduction to Atlantic Europe and the Metal Ages project

Mining, Metalworking and Artefact Studies

Simon Timberlake and Peter Marshall - The Bronze Age mines dating project and some new ideas on ore extraction and smelting

William O'Brien - Derrycarhoon mine and the supply of copper in later Bronze Age Ireland

R. Alan Williams - Linking ore to metal: characterizing the ores and tracing the metal from the Great Orme Bronze Age copper mine in north Wales

Andrew P. Fitzpatrick - Mining, making, and stone tools: the earliest metal objects in Britain and Ireland

Linda Boutoille - Cushion stones and company: British and Irish finds of stone metalworking implements from the Bell Beaker period to the Late Bronze Age

Tobias Mortz - Once unburied, yet unfound: a survey of the moulds for casting swords in Late Bronze Age Britain

Katharine Leonard - Commensality and casting: a discussion of Irish Late Bronze Age cauldrons

David Bell - Bronze Age halberds: use-wear and functionality

David Mullin - Return to the source: the use of stone in pottery in later Bronze Age Britain

Ros O Maolduin - Well shaved travellers: Irish and Scottish Early Bronze Age razors

Oliver Dietrich and Tobias Mortz - Sockets full of scrap? Remarks on deliberate fragmentation in Late Bronze Age metal deposits in south-eastern and north-western Europe

Landscape, Settlement and Rock Art

James O'Driscoll - The Baltinglass hillfort cluster in the context of the Irish hillfort phenomenon: an initial view

Alan Hawkes - The re-use of prehistoric burnt mounds in Ireland: the importance of social memory, identity and place

Rebecca Aroon Enlander - Chronologies and connections: exploring the re-use of rock art and geological choice in Bronze Age Ireland

Martin Rundkvist - Bronze Age landscape rules of deposition around Lakes Malaren and Hjalmaren, Sweden

Indices and Appendices

Index of place names (in alphabetical order)

Index of place names (by country)

List of contributors

2013 Bronze Age Forum programme

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Concepts, Chronologies and Connections

Dirk Brandherm – Almost lost between the lines: the concept of the Atlantic Bronze Age

Sabine Gerloff and Brendan O’Connor – A scheme for the British Bronze Age by C.F.C. Hawkes

Katharine Sawyer – Dating the entrance graves and cists of the Isles of Scilly

Rachel J. Crellin – The emergence of a Bronze Age on the Isle of Man

Alice Rogers – One foot in sea, and one on shore: movement along the British North Sea coastline in the Early Bronze Age

Catriona Gibson, Peter Bray, Kerri Cleary, Fernando Fernández Palacios and John T. Koch – Mapping the flow: introduction to Atlantic Europe and the Metal Ages project

Mining, Metalworking and Artefact Studies

Simon Timberlake and Peter Marshall – The Bronze Age mines dating project and some new ideas on ore extraction and smelting

William O’Brien – Derrycarhoon mine and the supply of copper in later Bronze Age Ireland

R. Alan Williams – Linking ore to metal: characterizing the ores and tracing the metal from the Great Orme Bronze Age copper mine in north Wales

Andrew P. Fitzpatrick – Mining, making, and stone tools: the earliest metal objects in Britain and Ireland

Linda Boutoille – Cushion stones and company: British and Irish finds of stone metalworking implements from the Bell Beaker period to the Late Bronze Age

Tobias Mörtz – Once unburied, yet unfound: a survey of the moulds for casting swords in Late Bronze Age Britain

Katharine Leonard – Commensality and casting: a discussion of Irish Late Bronze Age cauldrons

David Bell – Bronze Age halberds: use-wear and functionality

David Mullin – Return to the source: the use of stone in pottery in later Bronze Age Britain

Ros Ó Maoldúin – Well shaved travellers: Irish and Scottish Early Bronze Age razors

Oliver Dietrich and Tobias Mörtz – Sockets full of scrap? Remarks on deliberate fragmentation in Late Bronze Age metal deposits in south-eastern and north-western Europe

Landscape, Settlement and Rock Art

James O’Driscoll – The Baltinglass hillfort cluster in the context of the Irish hillfort phenomenon: an initial view

Alan Hawkes – The re-use of prehistoric burnt mounds in Ireland: the importance of social memory, identity and place

Rebecca Aroon Enlander – Chronologies and connections: exploring the re-use of rock art and geological choice in Bronze Age Ireland

Martin Rundkvist – Bronze Age landscape rules of deposition around Lakes Mälaren and Hjälmaren, Sweden

Indices and Appendices

Index of place names (in alphabetical order)

Index of place names (by country)

List of contributors

2013 Bronze Age Forum programme

• Edited by Dirk Brandherm

‘While it has been 12 years since the forum took place, the contents do not feel dated, with most papers having been updated in the intervening years to reflect new evidence and changing perspectives. This makes the volume relevant today, a helpful addition to our corpus of knowledge on the period in the north Atlantic.’ – Kathryn Krakowka (2026): Current Archaeology Issue 432

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