Bronze Age

The Bronze Age was a time of great change in Britain. It saw a change in the type of burial monument. The new type of burial monument consisted of a small circular mound covering a single burial replacing the large communal burial chambers of the Neolithic.

At the same time new styles of pottery appeared and most significantly metal was introduced for the first time. These developments may have been the result of new people arriving from the continent with new technology and customs but it is now thought more likely they arrived in Britain through trade contacts with Europe.

Man in the early bronze age came to Pembrokeshire bearing metal that was yet too scarce or precious to use in making heavy implements. These were the Beaker Folk, so called from the shapely drinking vessels which they buried as grave goods with their dead under puddingshaped mounds, or barrows.

The preponderance of barrows along the upland route on the Preseli Hills, and the Ridgeway in the south, indicates that not all those who travelled these routes from Wessex to Ireland to bring back gold from Wicklow Hills were able to complete the journey.

During the early Bronze Age their was an general climatic improvement which allowed the exploitation of higher ground and the further development of agriculture. This may have allowed the development of a settled and territorial society with the agricultural surpluses capable of supporting a ruling class, warriors, and artisans. Specialist craftsmen using the new metals were creating an increasingly complex array of weapons and jewelry.

However towards the end of the second millennium BC there seems to have been a major upheaval in the nature of society possibly driven partly by demographic growth and partly by climatic deterioration. Much of the thin upland soil had already been over exploited by this time and the deteriorating climate finally forced their abandonment which placed increased pressure on the lowland populations.

These increasing demographic pressures may have led to the creation of a more warlike society as it is around this time that the first defensive settlements appear in the landscape. These settlements were normally positioned in naturally defensive situations such as hilltops or coastal and inland promontories, these settlements were defended with ditches and massive ramparts of earth and stone the remains of which are often still visible today. These defended settlements are usually referred to as hillforts regardless of their situation.