Britain’s Bronze Age: Massive Non-Anthropogenic Climate Change

Traditional textbooks explain that the Neolithic Age was followed by the Bronze Age, which in turn was succeeded by the Iron Age. Because, however, these phases of technological development emerged at substantially different times in various places, it was possible that Neolithic societies, Bronze Age societies, and Iron Age societies lived simultaneously, albeit in separate locations.

This situation prevents simple definitions of these three ages as beginning, even approximately, at some stated time, or ending at some stated time. In some locations, the Bronze Age was ending at the same time that it was beginning in other places. As historian Jason Urbanus writes,

Some 3,000 years ago, throughout Britain, broad changes in settlement patterns, society, and technology were slowly bringing an end to what archeologists call the British Bronze Age (2500 - 800 B.C.). In the coming centuries, the Iron Age would emerge.

Greece and China, among others, had already ended their Bronze Ages at the time when Britain was beginning its Bronze Age. But other types of change were happening in England contemporaneously with that region’s Bronze Age: climate change.

Paleontologists, archeologists, and historians document several massive non-anthropogenic climate swings throughout history. A “Roman Warm Period” (250 B.C. to 400 A.D.) and a “Medieval Warm Period” (950 A.D. to 1250 A.D.) represent temperature outliers much warmer than those observed at the end of the twentieth century or the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Likewise, a “Dark Ages Cold Period” (450 A.D. to 950 A.D.) and a “Little Ice Age” (1300 A.D. to 1870 A.D.) were the greatest global coolings recorded during historical times (as opposed to the even colder Ice Ages of prehistoric times). As its Bronze Age was ending, Britain experienced another climate change.

The key feature of these historic climate trends was that they were both massive and non-anthropogenic.

But in the wetlands of East Anglia, referred to as the Fenland, a transformation of another sort, both more conspicuous and tangible, was taking place. Climate change was gradually causing water levels to rise, and, as marshland increased, vital dry land became scarcer. The solution for one small settlement was to build its homes on pylons directly above the water.

The hypothesis that these “stilt houses” were built to maximize arable land is questionable. Many early societies built houses on pylons over water, swamps, or other types of land.

In most cases, the purpose for the stilts was not to preserve agricultural land. Often, it was to escape flooding, or to protect the houses from rodent infestation.