The Iron Age period
The next big discovery was how to smelt and forge iron. This was much more difficult than working bronze, but tools made from iron are much stronger and sharper. Tools are still mostly made from iron today. Bronze and other copper alloys were still used for jewellery, horse harness and equipment for carts and chariots, as they did not rust and they looked lovely. Many Iron Age objects were also enamelled in bright colours.
The Iron Age lasted right up to the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD, but from as early as about 50 BC some people in Britain were being influenced by Roman culture. The wealthiest people brought wine, food and luxury goods into Britain from Gaul and Italy . The most powerful and wealthy people were the kings who ruled over parts of the South East of Britain. By about 10AD they had begun to make coins with their heads and names on. These coins copied Roman coins and are very similar in style to the coins that we use today. But even after the Romans had conquered Britain , many aspects of Iron Age life did not change. For the ordinary farmers and craftsmen of Britain life would have carried on as before.
Central Unit blogs
- CASPAR seminar series
- Leveraging geodata for enriched records
- Six month review of new website performance
- Digging for Britain’s viewing figures
- My experience of self-recording on the database
- Digging for Britain – BBC2
- Adding old OS maps to findspot maps
- Another milestone reached
- Using our data to place a google map on your own site (without the api)
- Staffordshire Hoard conservation opportunities
