British Bronze Age artifacts made from copper, bronze, gold, flint, jet,
and shale are renowned throughout Europe for their beauty and exquisite
craftsmanship. In England and Wales, many new discoveries are made each
year by members of the public and recorded with the British Museum's
Portable Antiquities Scheme. Recent nationally important finds include
the gold lunula from Tarrant Valley (Dorset), the gold and silver
striped penannular ring from Havant (Hampshire), and the metalwork hoard
from Boughton Malherbe (Kent)--is the third largest metalwork hoard ever
discovered in Britain. Here, Dot Boughton and Peter Reavill investigate
chance finds and hoards discovered in the past 20 years and use them to
discuss the development of the different Bronze Age weapon, tool,
vessel, and ornament types from their humble origins to their individual
peaks in the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age (c. 2500-700BC).