Belief and ritual
in the Bronze Age

This section of the Dover bronze Age Boat gallery looks at changing ritual practices through the Bronze Age - and the evidence that we can see today - round barrows and monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury.

Burials and Cremations

Round barrows

In the Bronze Age, some important people were buried in individual graves called round barrows.  These could be perhaps chiefs, warriors or priests.  These barrows contained objects, such as pots and jewellery  that tell us these were important people.

Cremations

Later in the Bronze Age, people were cremated,, and then their bones placed in large pots (cremation urns) and buried.

Monuments

Large monuments, built by possibly large communities of people, were built during this time, such as Stonehenge.

Water Rituals

Some evidence points to water being involved in ritual practices; Weapons, tools and jewellery that were deliberately thrown into water have been found on some archaeological sites from the late Bronze Age.  Rock drawings in  Scandinavia contain images of people on boats, and a wooden carved boat was found near Hull. There is a replica of this boat on display at Dover Museum.