The
British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the
archaeology of
Great Britain, referring to the
prehistoric and
protohistoric phases of the
Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding
prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of its own. The parallel phase of Irish archaeology is termed the
Irish Iron Age.The Iron Age is not an
archaeological horizon of common artefacts, but is rather a locally diverse cultural phase.
The British Iron Age lasted in theory from the first significant use of
iron for tools and weapons in Britain to the
Romanisation of the southern half of the island. The Romanised culture is termed
Roman Britain and is considered to supplant the British Iron Age. The Irish Iron Age was ended by the rise of
Christianity.
The tribes populating the island belonged to a broadly
Celtic culture, termed
Insular (as opposed to the non-insular Celtic cultures of continental
Gaul and
Iberia).The
Brythonic and
Goidelic languages are recognised as forming the
Insular Celtic subgroup of the
Celtic languages, "Celtic" being a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age.Fitzpatrick (1996) page 242: "It is clear, then, that there is no intrinsic 'Celtic' European unity and that the idea of 'Celtic' Iron Age Europe has developed in...
Read More