1. The Bronze Age
A reconstruction of a Bronze Age dwelling at Flag Fen

2. How was Bronze first discovered?
About 2500BC people in the Middle East discovered how to use metal.
The first metal they used was Copper.
But copper was too soft.
Then they realised that if you added tin to copper it made a harder metal called ____
Bronze

3. Bronze tools and weapons are sharper than stone tools.
Gradually the use of bronze spread across Europe.
This led archaeologists to say the Stone Age ended and the Bronze Age began.

4. Why was bronze better than Stone?
It was harder wearing
It could be shaped more easily.
It had a sharper edge.

5. The Bronze Age comes to Ireland
Copper & bronze appear in Ire around 2000BC. There is plenty of copper. Archaeologists have found copper mines in a number of places. For example, Mount Gabriel, Co Cork and near Kilarney, Co Kerry

6. Archaeologists have found no Tin mines in Ireland.
So how did they make Bronze?
Archaeologists believed it was imported to Ireland from the tin mines in Cornwall, in England.
This would mean bronze age people traded.

7. Copper & Tin are minerals found in rocks in the form of ore
How do you get the ore from the rocks to make bronze objects?

8. Smelting

9. Beaker Folk About 2000BC a new type of pot appeared in archaeological
sites around Europe.
These pots are shaped like a drinking glass
Archaeologists call them ‘beakers’ and they called the people who made them ‘Beaker Folk’

10. In sites where the Beaker Folk appear, there are usually copper and bronze tools too.
Archaeologists think the Beaker Folk brought the Bronze Age to Ireland.

11. Complete the table of information on life in the Bronze Age.
Houses
Food & Family
Work
Tools & Weapons
Arts & crafts

12. Fulachta Fiadh
Drombeg

13. How did Bronze Age people bury their dead?
Burial Customs
How did Bronze Age people bury their dead?
Cist Graves

14. Wedge Tomb
Glantane East Wedge Tomb, County Cork, Ireland

15. Stone Circle Drombeg, Co Cork

16. Credits
Bronze Age Househttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_heritage_management
Tools:
Axe:
Artefacts:
Smelting image with furnace:
6. Smelting Process:

17. 7. Pottery: http://upload. wikimedia
8. Drombeg Fulachta Fia:
9. Fulachta Fia:
10. Cist Grave/Skeleton:
11. Wedge Tomb:
12. Stone Circle: