The Bronze Age

The Bronze Age (Hayley) 

The Bronze Age originally began in Europe but was brought over to Britain in 2,000 BCE. Bronze is created by smelting tin and copper ores which are readily found in Britain. 

The Bronze was originally believed to have been brought to Britain by the Beaker people from Switzerland, so called because of their bell shaped pottery drinking vestals. Evidence of this civilisation has also been found at Stone Henge. 

Bronze was gradually used to replace stone for tools and weaponry. To create these objects they first had to recover the ores this was cleverly done by lighting a fire against the rocks this was called fire setting. Once the rocks were heated sufficiently cold water was thrown on it which caused contraction and the rocks to crack.  Other tools were also found in the Welsh mines such as leg bones of cattle which were driven in using stone. Some of these mines went down to approximately 150ft however, most were open cast. The copper ores were then crushed washed and placed in a kiln that used charcoal to heat it. It was then mixed with tin and put in casts to cool and create the desired object.

As Coyle states tin is a scares metal and is only 0.001% of the earth’s crust. It was mainly found in the Southwest of England in areas such as Devon and Cornwall . From around 1600 BCE tin was mined in the Southwest of England which experienced a substantial boom period, as tin was traded readily to the whole of Europe in order to make bronze. Copper ores however was mainly found in Great Orm situated in North Wales, along with Cheshire and Isle of man.

It would not be practical for us to do this in the woods as in the downs there is not any copper ores in the soil as it is mainly consists of chalk and lower weald . It would also be impractical for us to get our hands on a kiln.


What are Ores?

An ore is any naturally-occurring source of a metal that you can economically extract the metal from. Ores can be extremely hard to extract as they can be found deep in the ground  and must be mined. To get a pure form of copper the best way to extract copper from the unwanted material is by using a chemical called sulphuric acid. To do this the ores must be crushed and left in dilute sulphuric acid. The copper can then be extracted. Another way to separate the two is by using froth flotation. In this method the ore is crushed and mixed with pine oil which binds to the copper compound but not the unwanted material. The treated solution is then put in a bath of water containing a soap where air is blown into it to create bubbles. The copper coated in the hydrophobic oil floats up to the top of the bath and can flow over the sides. This is an extremely advanced method and obviously would not have been around during the Bronze Age therefore their copper would not have been so refined.




The Smelting Process:

Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to reduce the ores, this leaves the metal behind. The high temperatures created within the clay kiln reached 1100 degrees which could only be achieved by using forced drafts as well as natural drafts.

Sources Used:

·         Geroff Coyle,(2010)The Riches Beneath Our Feet: How Mining Shaped Britain.Oxford Press

·         http://www.prehistoric.org.uk/bronze-age/

·         http://www.chemguide.co.uk/inorganic/extraction/introduction.html

·         http://www.derbyscc.org.uk/alderley/mining_process_1.php#3