1. The Bronze Age

2. Before We Begin...
Moving on from the Stone Age, why do you think this period is known as the Bronze Age?
Do you know what bronze is? How is it made?
Do you think there was a difference in the work done by Bronze Age and Neolithic people? (if so, what?)

3. What’s in this chapter
We are going to learn about the lives of Bronze Age people. By the end of this chapter you will be able to describe Bronze Age:
Houses and Settlements
Food and Family Life
Work and Farming
Art and Craft
Burial Customs

4. Today’s Objectives
By the end of this class, you will be able to tell your friends all about:
The arrival of the Bronze Age people
Bronze Age settlements

5. The Arrival of New People
2000 BC: new people arrived in Ireland
These new people knew how to make and use metal
Copper: used first (where do we think it came from?)
Tin was later added to the copper to make Bronze
Copper + Tin = Bronze!

6. Why Bronze Instead of Stone?
Harder
Sharper
Easier to shape

7. Houses and Settlements
Near rivers and lakes (why?)
Also went inland (how?)
Houses: similar to Neolithic houses and settlements (can we remember what these were like?)
Circular
6m in diameter
Timber frame
Walls: wattle and daub
Roof: thatched
Built timber fences around their settlements

8. Exercise
Using the details on the previous slide and your notes, draw a picture of what you think these settlements looked like. Label the different features.

10. Back to Our Objectives Homework: Revision Q’s 1-2
In your copy, write down 1 fact about:
Why Bronze was used instead of copper
Bronze Age Houses
What two metals make bronze
Homework: Revision Q’s 1-2

11. Today’s Objectives Today, we are going to look at:
The work and farming of the Bronze Age people
The art and craft of the Bronze Age people

12. Bronze Age Food and Family Life
Same food as Mesolithic people (which was?)
Wheat and barley – porridge
Grain – ground on a saddle stone
Meat: pigs, sheep, cattle, fish
Food: stored in wooden baskets or pottery vessels.
Spits and cauldrons used to cook on as well as a new method...

13. One to Think About
If you were a Bronze Age person, how would you go about cooking your meat?

14. Fulachta Fiadh New method cooking Carried out in fulachta fiadh
Found in wet, low-lying places
Hole Dug
Lined with timber or flat stones.
Filled with water
Large stones were heated and put into the water to heat it
The meat was then wrapped in straw and put into the boiling water – this cooked it.

15. Fulacht Fiadh

16. How Do We Know This?!
Nobody could write at the time, so how do we know that Mr. Kirk isn’t lying or making this up? How do we know these things were real?

17. Evidence!
Archaeologists have found thousands of these fulachta fiadh throughout Ireland because they were also used in the Iron Age by the Celts!
The evidence is usually a small mound of burned stones

18. Bronze Age Farming Mostly farmers
Cleared trees to use the land for farming
Dairying and grain-growing (using wooden spades and ploughs; Bronze sickles were used to cut crops)
Planted wheat and barley (to make what?)
Also kept animals

19. Metalworking, Arts & Crafts
Q: What do you call someone who works with and creates objects using metal?
A: Smith
Used moulds made from stone and clay
Lunulae, sun discs, torcs, bracelets and necklaces are examples of Bronze Age objects made from metal
PLAY THE CLIP!!

21. Back to Our Objectives Homework: Revision Q’s 3, 4 + 5
In your copy, write down 1 fact about:
How were bronze tools made?
What were the fi8elds used for?
Describe cooking using a Fulacht Fiadh.
Homework: Revision Q’s 3, 4 + 5

22. Today’s Objectives Today, we are going to look at: Bronze Age Burials
Chapter revision

23. Revision
How were Neolithic people buried? Can you remember the three types of burial customs that we studied?
Do you think there is a difference in how Bronze Age people were buried?

24. Burial Customs 3 types: Cist graves Wedge tombs
Standing stones or stone circles

25. Cist Graves Rectangular graves that held one person
Bodies were placed in a crouched position
Grave goods often placed inside (what were these again?)
Covered with a slab

26. Cist Grave

27. Wedge Tombs Most common type of Bronze Age burial Walls: flat stones
There was a capstone on top (What else had a capstone?)
Wedge: entrance was higher and wider (at an angle)
Bodies: cremated and put inside

28. Wedge Tomb

29. Standing Stones Main types: Entrance: NE of circle
Stone circles, stone rows and standing stones
Entrance: NE of circle
Smallest stone: opposite entrance
Used for burials and ceremonies
Example Drombeg Stone Circle

30. Drombeg Stone Circle

31. Recap Exercises! On the handout (that says pg. 41): Homework:
Answer the Picture Question Q’s (i) – (vi) in class
Answer Q’s 3-6 on the last handout of your notes.
Homework:
Answer the Focus Task: People in History question in the box under the picture
Revise notes for a test in the next class!