Ornament Horizon

A brief period in the Middle Bronze Age of southwest Britain marked by the occurrence, in hoards, of tools and bronze ornaments which owe their inspiration to types current in north Germany and Scandinavia from c 1400 BC. These 'foreign' objects include torcs, coiled finger rings, ribbed bracelets, knobbed sickles, and square-mouthed socketed axes. In Devon, Somerset, and Sussex, hoards of the Ornament Horizon also contain native spearheads, palstaves, and quoit-headed pins. This influx seems to have given a boost to the native bronze industry.

Name sometimes given to a very brief phase of the British Middle Bronze Age, marked by the appearance in hoards of a number of ornaments and tools of Scandinavian and north German type. This influx seems to have given a boost to the native bronze industry, which started producing such forms as twisted tores, armlets, ribbed bracelets and coiled rings as well as socketed axes and sickles.