The Overton Period is the name given by archaeologist
Colin Burgess to a division of
prehistory
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...
in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
covering the period between 2000 BC and 1650 BC.
It follows the
Mount Pleasant Period and precedes the
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 It follows his Overton Period and is superseded by his Knighton Heath Period.
It covers ...
, and is named after the
typesite of the
West Overton
West Overton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Marlborough. The river Kennet runs immediately north of the village, separating it from the A4 road. The parish includes the village of Lockeridge, ...
barrow cemetery
Thorncliffe Cemetery and Crematorium (also known as 'Barrow Cemetery/Crematorium') is a 66-acre graveyard located on Devonshire Road in the Ormsgill ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England.
The cemetery opened in 1872 and a crematorium wa ...
in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...
.
During the Overton Period the first signs of
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
burial practices – urned cremations and food vessel burials – appear in the archaeological record, as well as the last stages of the use of
Beaker pottery. Rich
Wessex culture burials emerged during the period such as that at
Bush Barrow
Bush Barrow is a site of the early British Bronze Age Wessex culture (c. 2000 BC), at the western end of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. It is among the most important sites of the Stonehenge complex, having produced some of the most specta ...
near
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting ...
.
Characteristic metalworking types include the
Amorico-British dagger and the Falkland industries, which demonstrate influences from the continental
Unetice culture
The Únětice culture or Aunjetitz culture ( cs, Únětická kultura, german: Aunjetitzer Kultur, pl, Kultura unietycka) is an archaeological culture at the start of the Central European Bronze Age, dated roughly to about 2300–1600BC. The epo ...
.
References
Periods of the British Bronze Age
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