British Tin Started Europe’s Bronze Age 🇬🇧

Discover the pivotal role Britain played in sparking Europe’s Bronze Age in this free history documentary! 🌟 Unearth the secrets of the Beaker folk, who mainstreamed tin-bronze in the British Isles around 2200 BC, revolutionising metallurgy with Cornwall and Devon’s rich tin deposits. Focusing on the iconic Huntshaw dagger, explore how such early bronze weapons, buried in sacred barrows, symbolised power and spirituality. 🗡️ Dive into the history of tin trade, ancient craftsmanship, and the cultural significance of Bronze Age daggers, including exclusive insights from master swordsmith Neil Burridge. 🛠️ Why were these state-of-the-art weapons buried with the dead? Watch to uncover the mysteries of Britain’s Bronze Age legacy!

Full interview with Neil Burridge sword smith 

More on the Huntshaw barrows 

 

Sources: 

-Doe, G.M. The Examination of two Barrows near Torrington.(1875) 
-Jones, Quinnell. ‘Daggers in the West: Early Bronze Age Daggers and Knives in the South-west Peninsula’. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (2013) 
-Wang, Strekopytov, Roberts,’Copper ingots from a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe, Devon: Composition and microstructure’ Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 97, 2018. -Williams et al. From Land's End to the Levant: did Britain's tin sources transform the Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean?. Antiquity (2025)
-Hameldown dagger, Legendary Dartmoor website (2016) 

The Future of History with Bronze Age Pervert

 
 

Bronze Age Pervert (BAP) joins Tom Rowsell to discuss ancient history and how the heroic ideals of the past can shape our future. This is your chance to hear BAP’s unfiltered thoughts on the classical antiquity that inspires his philosophy, from the vitality of the Bronze Age to the inspiration of the Renaissance. We also talk about Plato and religion and in the second half we also discuss the misinterpretation in population geneticists of ancient cultures and elite dominance models of cultural replacement.

The Greatest Living Bronze Sword Smith

Neil Burridge is an accomplished sword smith and widely considered the greatest living smith of historical replica cast bronze swords and daggers. He has cast and forged hundreds of replica blades from Ancient Greek Mycenaean, to Nordic Bronze Age and Celtic style weapons. I visited him in his workshop to collect a special replica of the Huntshaw dagger he made for me and we chatted about his work and the history of bronze working.