Böcker av Dot Boughton

British Bronze Age artefacts 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) and the gold and silver striped penannular ring from Havant (Hampshire). The metalwork hoard from Boughton Malherbe (Kent) is the third largest metalwork hoard ever discovered in Britain. Here, Dot Boughton investigates finds and hoards discovered over the last twenty years and uses 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.

Archaeology is about understanding people in the past from what they have left behind. Objects inform us about how people lived, what they made and what they were used for. There has often been a view that there are no archaeological finds in the north-west. However, through the work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the display of existing museum collections, this traditional view is being challenged. By looking at objects discovered in Cumbria, and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, we can discover and demonstrate the continuity of activity within this county. Cumbria has revealed the longevity of its past through a range of both functional and decorative objects. Objects were made and traded from the Copper Age, through the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age and Roman periods; further objects show Early Medieval activity and Post-Medieval artefacts reveal long journeys of religious pilgrimage and persecution. 50 Finds from Cumbria invites us to look at the continuity of our past using intriguing archaeological finds to illustrate what has previously been hidden away.