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Iron Age Tittle flaming background

The Iron Age was a complex period in British history. Iron was a much stronger metal than bronze and produced more effective ploughs and tools than previously was possible. The advancements in technology enabled land that had been considered unsuable to be cultivated. Settlements were able to grow and spread to new areas and many different tribes evolved giving smaller settlements greater support. The tribe which controlled Milton Keynes was the Catuvellauni.
The area of Blue Bridge was farmed and inhabited throughout the Iron Age:

Middle Iron Age
The large, single round house of the late Bronze Age/ early Iron Age was replaced with 15 smaller round houses turning it into a small village. Farming activities would still have been carried out collectively, but now privacy had become more important than in the late Bronze Age.

Late Iron Age
The size of the settlement in the late Iron Age had shrunk. Some time during this period field boundaries were constructed on the Villa Site, making it the first period of permanent activity here.

Farming: Diet and Produce

Menu of animals farmed in the Iron AgeDogs and horses were also kept on the farm.

Horses were valuable as they provided faster transportation over longer distances than was possible on foot. The heavy work required around the farm such as ploughing was carried out by cattle.


Death in The Iron Age

During the late Iron Age there was a cremation cemetery at Blue Bridge which is likely to have been a family plot used for around seventy years from the late Iron Age to early Roman Britain.

The bodies of the individuals were cremated on large bonfires called pyres and the ashes were then buried in urns together with grave goods.

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