tour 1 of 7
Daily life in Iron Age Britain
Daily life in Iron Age Britain
During the Iron Age, Britain was a land of
farms and small villages, with people living in round houses with
thatched roofs. The objects that archaeologists find when
excavating these farms are mundane and often in abundance. Fine
metal objects like the Great Torc from Snettisham (see under
'War and art'), which are often used to illustrate
the Iron Age, are rare and unusual. The most common Iron Age
remains are the rubbish from daily life, such as pot sherds, animal
bones and broken tools. These small, forgotten things are valuable
evidence of the daily life of Iron Age
people.
Most people were
full- or part-time farmers, their lives governed by the farming
year and the religious festivals that marked it. Most farmers grew
wheat and barley, and kept cattle, sheep and pigs. Some farming
families spent part of their time making salt, quern stones or
iron. These essentials were traded over long distances across
Britain. Other essentials were grown or made locally. Most
settlements have evidence of making clothes, woodworking and even
blacksmithing. Luxuries, such as shale bracelets, pots, bronze
objects, animal furs and feathers were also traded over long
distances.
This world was
not unchanging, and nor was it exactly the same from one part of
Britain to another. New varieties of crop and types of animal were
introduced at different times over the 850 years of the Iron Age.
For example, the domestic cat and the chicken arrived in Britain in
the last centuries of the Iron
Age.
Other
views:
1.
Artist's impression of a large round
house
2. Surviving evidence for large round
house; King's Dyke, Whittlesey
3.
Stone foundations for a round house in the
Pennines
4. Animal bones and broken pots in
the drainage gully of a round house; Little Thetford,
Ely