page_title: Gold working in the Bronze Age British Isles
section_title: Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
hierarchical_section_title: Gold working in the Bronze Age British Isles / Background / Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
context_page_description: Gold working in the Bronze Age British Isles refers to the use of gold to produce ornaments and other prestige items in the British Isles during the Bronze Age, between circa 2500 and c.800 BCE in Britain, and up to about 550 BCE in Ireland. In this period, communities in Britain and Ireland first learned how to work metal, leading to the widespread creation of not only gold but also copper and bronze items as well. Gold artefacts in particular were prestige items used to designate the high status of those individuals who wore, or were buried with them.
  Around 1,500 gold objects dating to the Bronze Age survive in collections, around 1000 of them from Ireland and the other 500 from Britain; this is a much smaller number than would have been originally crafted, leading archaeologists to believe that "many thousands of gold objects were made and used" in the Bronze Age British Isles.
  Records indicate that Bronze Age gold artefacts had begun to be discovered by the 18th century at the least, although at the time many were melted down or lost.
context_section_description: First developed in 1836 by Danish archaeologist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen as a part of his "Three-age system", the term "Bronze Age" is used by archaeologists to refer to those societies which have developed bronze technology but not yet learned how to work the more complicated process involved in making iron objects. The European Bronze Age lasted from circa 3200 BCE, when the Aegean civilizations of Greece first developed bronze technology, right through to c.600 BCE, when the Nordic Bronze Age came to an end with the development of iron among Scandinavian communities.
  The period known by archaeologists as Bronze Age Britain lasted from c.2500 BCE through to c.800 BCE, and was defined by the adoption of copper and bronze technologies on the island. Bronze Age Ireland followed a similar, yet distinct course.
  The Early Bronze Age in the British Isles was marked by the adoption of what archaeologists call the "Beaker culture", which had arrived from continental Europe. Eogan noted that the "evidence from archaeology is that Beaker-using communities were the earliest metallurgists in Britain and Ireland", with their produce including "copper artefacts such as tanged daggers but also gold objects as well as the use of gold for embellishment."
caption: The extent of the "Beaker Package" across Europe, which was accompanied by the use of Beaker pottery, metal and specialised burials.
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