The life cycle of bronze age metalwork from the Thames

The high proportion of Bronze Age metalwork found in the Thames has aroused interest for many years, but all too little is known of the circumstances in which this material was deposited. Much of it is weaponry, but there are finds of tools as well. This paper examines the material found upstream of Teddington and considers its treatment before it entered the river. A high proportion of the artefacts had been used and some of them deliberately destroyed. There are marked variations in the selection and treatment of these artefacts along different lengths of the river and in different periods of the Bronze Age, but it seems likely that the proportion of fine metalwork that was deliberately damaged before it entered the river increased sharply over time.