causal hypothesis · hyp_bi_mosaic_reorganization
Regionally asynchronous continuity and reorganization model
Later Bronze Age change in Britain and Ireland is best explained as a mosaic of local continuity, aggregation, dispersal, production shifts and changing depositional practice rather than one collapse.
Review and provenance
Specialist reviewer: not recorded. Review date: not recorded.
Dataset workflow: preferred regional model. This is separate from specialist review.
Confidence describes the stated assessment; it does not certify expert approval. How review works.
Research assessment
statement
Later Bronze Age change in Britain and Ireland is best explained as a mosaic of local continuity, aggregation, dispersal, production shifts and changing depositional practice rather than one collapse.proposed mechanism
locally timed settlement aggregation or dispersal; reorganization of production and exchange; continuity with selective technological and agricultural changemechanisms
- locally timed settlement aggregation or dispersal
- reorganization of production and exchange
- continuity with selective technological and agricultural change
chronology test
The model predicts different directions and dates of change across Great Orme, Haughey's Fort, Flag Fen, Dartmoor, Ireland and the islands; the dataset contains those contrasts.geography test
The model predicts different combinations and dates of continuity, aggregation, dispersal and production change across Wales, southern and northern England, Scotland, Ireland and the islands rather than one spatially uniform pattern.important caveat
Some local destructions or abandonments can still be abruptResearch description
Some local destructions or abandonments can still be abrupt
Evidence and sources
Supporting sources
- supports · tests hypothesis
Boom and bust in Bronze Age Britain: major copper production from the Great Orme mine and European trade, c. 1600–1400 BC — R. Alan Williams, Cécile Le Carlier de Veslud (2019)Integrates mine chronology, ore characterisation, metal analyses and production estimates to argue for a major Great Orme production peak and wide circulation.
Locator: Abstract; The Great Orme copper mine; Discussion; Conclusions; Figures 2 and 9 - supports · tests hypothesis
Haughey’s Fort: a major complex of power, production and ritual in Late Bronze Age Europe — James O’Driscoll, Patrick Gleeson (2026)Combines lidar, geophysics, excavation and archival reassessment to reconstruct the scale and functions of Haughey's Fort and adjacent monuments.
Locator: Abstract; Bronze Age Navan; Creeveroe; Haughey's Fort; King's Stables; conclusion - supports · tests hypothesis
New data on Irish Later Bronze Age metallurgy: exploring technological continuity and change — Carlo Bottaini, Dirk Brandherm (2026)Chemical analysis of 105 Irish Middle and Late Bronze Age artefacts finds broad continuity in Cu-Sn alloying with occasional elevated lead.
Locator: Abstract; pp. 1–36; dataset discussion - supports · tests hypothesis
The Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement — Mark Knight, Rachel Ballantyne, Iona Robinson Zeki, David Gibson (2019)Publishes the exceptional Must Farm pile settlement, its earlier channel structures and the Flag Fen Basin palaeolandscape.
Locator: Abstract; palaeolandscape; earlier channel activity; discussion; conclusions; Figure 2 - supports · tests hypothesis
What happened before the Middle Bronze Age land divisions and roundhouses? Prehistoric soil erosion and landscape change on Dartmoor, UK — Chris Carey, Kim Hunnisett, Richard Macphail, Lee Bray, Phil Toms, Jaime Wood, Andy Crabb (2024)Analyses sediments predating a roundhouse and reave at Holwell and finds local anthropogenic erosion both before and after formal land division.
Locator: Abstract; Holwell sequence; discussion and conclusion
Contradicting sources
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Other source context
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