Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain
Study note
After the Stone Age came the Bronze Age, named after the metal that people learned to work at that time. In the Bronze Age, people made tools and weapons from bronze and lived in round houses. The Bronze Age came directly after the Stone Age and before the Iron Age, so the order of these early periods is Stone, then Bronze, then Iron.
The Iron Age followed the Bronze Age. People in the Iron Age learned to use iron, built hill forts such as Maiden Castle in Dorset for defence, and spoke a Celtic language. They also made the first coins ever produced in Britain. So remember two things in particular: hill forts were built for defence in the Iron Age, and the first British coins date from the Iron Age, not from later periods such as the Roman age or the Middle Ages.
Memory tip: Order of metals: Bronze Age first, then Iron Age (hill forts, first coins, Celtic language).
Practise this topic
Question 1 of 3
What did people in Iron Age Britain build for defence?
Show all questions and answers for Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain(3 questions with explanations)
Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain: questions, answers and explanations
1. What did people in Iron Age Britain build for defence?
- Castles of stone
- Cathedrals
- Railway stations
- Hill forts
Correct answer: Hill forts
Iron Age people built hill forts, such as Maiden Castle in Dorset.
2. Which period in Britain came immediately after the Stone Age?
- The Bronze Age
- The Roman period
- The Iron Age
- The Middle Ages
Correct answer: The Bronze Age
The Bronze Age followed the Stone Age, before the Iron Age began.
3. The first coins to be made in Britain date from the Iron Age.
- True
- False
Correct answer: True
True. The first British coins were made during the Iron Age.
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