Not Any Old Iron, or an Axe for Every Occassion?
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-05-21

What is a transition period? When does is start and when does it end? And is a transition period for, say, material culture, the same as for, say settlements or pottery?
In terms of prehistoric metalwork, iron appeared alongside copper-alloy objects some time before the first hillforts were built. However, in terms of settlement chronology, the appearance of hillforts is almost foolproof evidence for the start of the Early Iron Age. In a number of hoard contexts (pre-dating hillforts) iron metalwork was found alongside copper-alloy metalwork: this is, in essence the Bronze Age-Iron Age transitional period, but there is no ‘period’ in our time lines, only, well… a line. Instead, we now ‘squeeze’ this transitional period in the first part of the Early Iron Age, mainly because these metalwork hoards are not Late Bronze Age hoards, nor are they found in Early Iron Age contexts either! What are the semantics for understanding this transition?

Dot Boughton (Finds, Archives and Environmental Officer, OA North)

TAG Deva 2018
Session: Rethinking Transitions