The possibility of shaping it whilst in a state of fusion, and of re-sharpening implements made of it, gave to metal tools an immense superiority over those fashioned out of stone; and it is practically certain that the introduction of the new material had the effect of revolutionizing the methods of warfare, hunting, husbandry, building and other crafts. The introduction of bronze into Britain is associated with the appearance of the Goidels.
In the entire absence of documentary evidence, it is unwise to speculate in reference to certain phases and sides of life in the Bronze Age. We have simply the remains of weapons, implements, pottery, ornaments, etc., scattered on the surface of the ground, or hidden beneath its surface, either in the form of a secret hoard or a sepulchral deposit; we have evidences of decorative art on pottery and metalwork; we have earthworks built up by man during the Bronze Age; and, finally, we have bones of Bronze Age man himself.
From these various sources it can be pretty clearly shown that the Bronze Age extended over a comparatively long period of time. During that period there was a considerable advance in husbandry, in the potter's art, and indeed in the various phases of civilization generally. When the bronze-using people came to what is now England, they came probably as traders. At any rate, they soon fraternized with the neolithic inhabitants, and there is strong evidence that the two races intermarried. The testimony of sepulchral deposits upon this point is of great value, because it clearly establishes the fact that sepulture by inhumation, which was the special feature of neolithic burials, survived through the Bronze Age.
The distribution of Bronze Age antiquities in Kent, whether articles composed of bronze, or pottery, or personal ornaments, affords confirmatory evidence of these peaceable relations between the two races. Aylesford, which is remarkable as having afforded antiquities of every period of prehistoric times, is one of several localities in Kent where Neolithic and Bronze Age people lived side by side.
The chief antiquities of the Bronze Age in Kent have been discovered in or near the river-valleys of the Medway and the Stour, and also on or near the sea-coast, as in the Isle of Harty, and between Margate and Dover. The two forms of implements usually associated with the early part of the Bronze Age are the broad-edged flat celts and the short knife-daggers. An example of the former has been found at Aylesford,[1] and of the latter at Sittingbourne[2]; but these types are distinctly rare in Kent.
The implements or weapons suggestive of a later period are, however, much less rare, and the following are the more important examples: Swords have been found at All Hallow's, Hoo; Chatham; and the Thames at Greenwich: spear-heads at Chartham and Saltwood: a fine bronze shield in the Thames near Woolwich: knives at321
