Talk:Bronze Age Britain

Dates
I am curious as to placing the start of the EBA at 2750BC; usually it is cited as around 2500BC (e.g. Needham 1996). Is there a more recent source I am missing? Thefuguestate (talk) 19:00, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * No matter why... I tried Yahoo so I've found a few wiki quotes on the issue. They are all quite different at the dates! This article cites it «c. 2,500 until c. 800 BC», the "Great Britain" subsection in Bronze Age gives it as «from around 2100 to 750 BC», finally, a "school wikipedia" (still) cites it as «from around 2700 to 700 BC». The beginning date varies significantly, doesn't it? The question is — should we do something about it or is it just ok? Lincoln Josh (talk) 14:46, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
 * We add at the bottom of the page, where there is a more recent discussion. The variation is covered in the 2nd section of the article. Johnbod (talk) 15:57, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
 * More nonsense: "Around 2000 BC, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain: the Beaker culture. Beaker pottery appears in the Mount Pleasant Phase (2700–2000 BC), along with flat axes and the burial practice of inhumation." The Bell Beaker phase is poorly described, neither the start nor the end is correct. Note that the genetic exchange in Britain from Y-hg I to R1b starts around -2400 CC. 2A02:8108:9640:AC3:8079:B147:922D:7AA7 (talk) 08:46, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

BCE
Shouldn't we be using BCE rather than BC these days in an article such as this, in accord with the majority of modern authors? --Nigelj (talk) 16:16, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Is this of any interest
I just stumbled across this Caergwrle - don't know if it's of interest to this page ? EdwardLane (talk) 12:04, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Is there any place for Sir Thomas Browne's discourse on the Brampton urns, etc.
HYDRIOTAPHIA. URN BURIAL; OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE SEPULCHRAL URNS  LATELY FOUND IN NORFOLK Sir Thomas Browne (pub. 1658)

It was claimed that several "bronze age" burial urns had "recently" found in Brampton, and Browne discusses a little of what was found in them, and goes on to burial practices all over the world as he knew it. I don't know if they are actually Bronze Age, or if the Roman occupation  falls in the timeline in Britain, but maybe a short sidebar would be useful? And could link to the articles on Browne, and on Norfolk. Barkinglips (talk) 20:17, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Date of the start of the Bronze Age
The article is definite about making 2500 BC the start of the Bronze Age, but from the few sources I've looked at (I'm not an expert) there is some variation among the sources. Bradley's The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland uses 2000 BC as the Neolithic/Bronze Age boundary; in Prehistoric Britain, ed. Pollard (2008) the date is given as 2200 BC, in Pollard's contribution, "The Construction of Prehistoric Britain"; and Francis Pryor, in Britain BC, seems to settle on 2200 BC, but says "some archaeologists have dubbed the period 2500&mdash;2000 BC the 'LNEBA' (Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age)" because of the gradualness of the changes. I suggest we reflect some of this in the article. Any objections? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 21:59, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Instead of helplessly noting the different views, we should rather look for the criteria we are talking about! This should be feasable for a minimal intelligent editor.2A02:8108:9640:AC3:8079:B147:922D:7AA7 (talk) 08:40, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
 * This is still one of the most confused articles in British prehistory both in style and selfcontradictory writing. 2A02:8108:9640:AC3:D99D:F28D:617E:3578 (talk) 07:04, 22 April 2022 (UTC)
 * They are not even aware that Bronze is not Copper ...2A02:8108:9640:1A68:29BE:845D:67CE:709C (talk) 09:02, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Megalithic monuments?
The second paragraph of the page talks about 'megalithic monuments', but then goes on to cite 'examples' like Must Farm, which is not megalithic and Silbury, which is neither megalithic (in the strict sense of 'big stones') nor Bronze Age. I have hung back from deleting this all, as Must Farm is a crucial site for the period and isn't mentioned anywhere elsewhere on the page, but someone with more time and an appropriate level of knowledge could usefully revise this and create a more reliable list of major Bronze Age sites. 92.12.96.120 (talk) 22:20, 25 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree. The whole article badly needs thorough revision by an expert. Dudley Miles (talk) 22:35, 25 April 2020 (UTC)