Wessex Culture

Early Bronze Age culture of southern England with cemeteries of found barrows of special types (bell, disc and saucer barrows and enclosures strangely labeled 'pond barrows') c 2650-1400 BC. It developed from the Beaker tradition and was closely related to the Armorican Tumulus Culture. The Wessex I period, c 2650-2000 BC, is associated with the major rebuilding of Stonehenge (III). There are rich grave goods, including bronze daggers and axes, amber and shale beads and buttons, copper and gold. The pottery is mainly incense cups and the first collared urns. In the Wessex II period, c 1650-1400 BC, cremation replaced inhumation and there are faience beads. Bronze was normal in Wessex II, and contained up to 17 percent tin. They had contacts with Egypt, Mycenae, and Crete. Unfortunately no settlements of the Wessex culture are known.

Early Bronze Age culture of southern Britain characterized by a group of very rich burials under round barrows of special types (bell, disc and saucer barrows and enclosures strangely labelled ‘pond barrows’). The burials are usually divided into two groups, with inhumation predominating in the earlier Wessex I phase, cremation in Wessex II. These wealthy graves contained objects of gold, copper, bronze (low percentages of tin in Wessex I, high percentages in Wessex II), amber, faience, shale and bone, as well as pottery vessels of special types. Most of these materials are not available in Wessex itself and clearly Wessex was involved in a wide-ranging trade with the continent of Europe. Specific connections with Mycenae, though possible, are not now regarded as having had a crucial role in the development of the Wessex culture. Unfortunately no settlements of the Wessex culture are known and, apart from the barrows, the only monument that may be associated with this culture is the massive sarsen monument of Stonehenge III (though this association is far from certain). We do not know when the Wessex culture began, but radiocarbon dates for Wessex II burials cluster around 1250bc(cl550 bc). See also Bush Barrow, Rillaton.