The social organisation of metalworking in southern England during the Beaker period and Bronze Age: absence of evidence or evidence of absence?

Abstract

This contribution considers the lack of definition of the social context of metalworking during the earliest phases of metal use in southern England, in the Beaker period and the Bronze Age. Although Beaker and Bronze Age metalwork is widespread across the British Isles, and the chronology for its adoption and use is reasonably well-understood, defining the social context of metalworking has proven to be a more difficult problem to address. Metalworking is often described as a technological process divorced from the conditions of its production (Kuipers 2012), and as Brück (2008, 29) explains, ‘Despite significant recent advances in our understanding of the extraction, processing and exchange of copper ... our knowledge of both the landscape context and the social context of metalworking is still limited.’ This issue is also commented on by Parker Pearson (2011, 68), who acknowledges that we know relatively little about the social context of bronze metallurgy and old questions remain unanswered. Was bronze cast by itinerant smiths or by specialists tied to particular communities? This social context of metalworking during the Beaker period and Bronze Age is not a new question. Britton (1963, 258) writes,