Middle Bronze Age trade between Britain and Europe: a maritime perspective

Abstract

This paper is derived from chapters of a PhD dissertation by Keith Muckelroy which was partially completed at the time of his death in September 1980. Publication of sections relating to work on two Bronze Age wreck sites was thought appropriate since the maritime context of the material and Muckelroy's assessment of its significance related to Bronze Age studies in general as well as the more specific focus of Middle Bronze Age maritime archaeology which formed the core of the research. In these chapters Muckelroy discussed the individual artefact types and their continental relationship and assessed the implications of the Langdon Bay and Moor Sand cargoes in terms of Bronze Age seafaring and the seaborne transportation of goods. His detailed discussion of the bronze forms has been summarized here; and it is upon the maritime aspect that this paper concentrates, this being the area in which Muckelroy's work at the two sites was making its unique contribution.The two sites under examination, Langdon Bay and Moor Sand, are well-enough known through various interim statements (Baker and Brannigan 1978; Coombs 1976; Muckelroy and Baker 1979; Muckelroy 1980) to require little detailed introduction other than a short description here. Both are important not so much for the particular objects found, but for the implications of the associations and contexts and as a result of the briefest consideration it can be asserted that in the later second millennium BC there existed vessels of size and quality sufficient to transport bulk materials across the channel, probably at regular intervals, and certainly guaranteed of receptions which warranted the organization of Bronze Age shipping by a community or segment of a community.