Bronze Age Wessex and Tumuli Cultures
Wessex Culture
The Wessex Culture developed in the south of the island of Great Britain during the Bronze Age. Their graves feature burial or cremation, with or without a mound, both isolated and in groups. Between 1600 and 1400 BC, the rite of cremation dominated. It is thought that its inhabitants lived in tents made of reeds and wood. Because of their abundant remains, they were probably not nomadic, but sedentary. Trade relations must have developed, given the large number of objects found that are not typical of this area, such as bronze swords from Bohemia, amber necklaces from Southern Europe, and faience beads from Egypt.
The Culture of the Tumuli
The Tumuli Culture (or Mound Culture) was an archaeological culture that developed in Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age, between 1600 BC and 1200 BC. This cultural complex spread over areas previously held by the Unetice Culture of the Czech Republic, central and southern Germany, and western Poland. It was named for the preponderance of individual burial mounds (or cremation burials). This practice, and the abandonment of the necropolises of the previous period, have traditionally been considered as disruptive elements. However, it has recently been found that burial mounds also appeared at the time of the Unetice Culture.
Most of the tombs are located far from the most fertile land, in forested mountain areas, which has led to their builders being identified as pastoral communities.[1] However, remains of settlements on the plains have recently been discovered in Bavaria, Bohemia, and Breisgau. These include both large towns and isolated dwellings, identified through pits or silos, although the buildings themselves have not survived. Decorated ceramics, storage containers, and a few bronze objects were found.
The mounds were round or oval and were surrounded externally by a circle of stones. Initially, burial was the predominant rite (except in Bohemia), but cremation was on the rise, dominating the funeral scene from 1300 BC. A clear differentiation by gender has been found in the grave goods, which are fairly homogeneous: while male graves consist of knives, axes, a metal ornament (such as needles and pins), sometimes long swords, and ceramic vessels, female graves have no weapons and feature bronze ornaments and accessories (needles, bracelets, pendants, etc.).
The mounds sometimes appear isolated and sometimes form extensive necropolises of up to 500 structures (Dýšina in Bohemia or the Forest of Haguenau in Alsace, the latter being especially rich in bronze objects). These cemeteries are separated by large areas with no trace of any kind, which has been interpreted as potential boundaries between groups.
Often, animal bones are deposited in the graves, indicating the existence of deposition rituals. The production of bronze items was done with stone molds, allowing for the proliferation of metal ornaments. Dwelling places in high areas are not very large and often have natural defenses, although sometimes they were surrounded by wooden and earth walls, with one or more trenches. The houses were rectangular or trapezoidal, built of wood and perishable materials.
Around 1300 BC, the homogeneity of the Tumuli groups in Central Europe began to dilute, with villages being abandoned to concentrate in high, isolated, and well-defended locations. In Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, the change was less radical, with the territory sharing villages that existed before with newly built fortified settlements. Thus began a slow transition that would result in the appearance of the first *Urnfield* cultures.