The Bronze and Wood Age: Craft, Innovation and the specialist Woodcrafter in the European Bronze Age

Rob Lee supervised by

In considering ‘craft’ in Bronze Age Europe, the practice of woodworking is of great significance, its role being both facilitated by other technologies such as metallurgy, and equally facilitating such practices. Essentially ubiquitous throughout the period, the role of wood and the skills required to work it has been largely consigned, excepting the maritime tradition, to studies of toolmarks and materials preservation. However, the working of wood required sets of specialist skills, both in use and management. The involvement of wood-use in almost every practice of the Bronze Age places it as integral to creation and innovation, and it is on dual lines analysing the practice of woodcraft and its relation to the development of metallurgy that the research predominates.

The focus is upon the transitions from stone to metallurgical technology and then the later development of the metallurgical craft. The initial analysis considers use, variation and innovation in tools, analysing the growth of variant types as evidence for changing practices and specialisation in craft practice. Coupled to assessing how craft and skill is conceptualised in the archaeology, and evidence for how such activity was viewed in the Bronze Age, the study will develop the idea of the woodcrafter as a specialist akin to the metalsmith, leading to an understanding of the significance of wood both within craft practices and as its own craft. From this it will be possible to analyse the relationships between craftspeople and re-evaluate ideas of innovation in craft activity during the European Bronze Age.