- Bedd Branwen Period
The Bedd Branwen Period is the name given by Colin Burgess to a division of the early
Bronze Age in Britain covering the period between 1650 BC and 1400 BC. It follows hisOverton Period and is superseded by hisKnighton Heath Period .It covers the period after the end of the Beaker tradition and the early
Wessex culture , and was a time whencremation became an almost universal burial rite in Britain. Earlierround barrow s were re-used for cremation cemeteries although new barrows were also still being built.The pottery of the
Deverel-Rimbury culture appears alongside the earlier collared urns in the archaeological record during this period and metalworking developed through theArreton Down and Acton Park industries.In his 1986 article Burgess acknowledged that the Bedd Branwen site was wrongly dated. Most of the burials actually date from a new period, the
Fargo Phase c. 1800 - 1600 bc, (which previously was incorporated in theOverton Period ). Burgess re-named the Bedd Branwen period theAldbourne-Edmondsham phase .Bibliography
Burgess, C., 1980. "The Age of Stonehenge". London, Dent & Sons
Burgess, C., 1986. 'Urnes of no Small Variety': Collared Urns Reviewed "Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society" 52, 339-351
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