Page "Glamorgan" Paragraph 9

The Bronze Age – defined by the use of metal – has made a lasting impression on the area.

Over six hundred Bronze Age barrows and cairns, of various types, have been identified all over Glamorgan.

Other technological innovations – including the wheel ; harnessing oxen ; weaving textiles ; brewing alcohol ; and skillful metalworking ( producing new weapons and tools, and fine gold decoration and jewellery, such as brooches and torcs ) – changed people's everyday lives during this period.

Deforestation continued to the more remote areas as a warmer climate allowed the cultivation even of upland areas. alt = Map of Wales showing the names of Celtic British tribes in their territoriesBy 4000 BP people had begun to bury, or cremate their dead in individual cists, beneath a mound of earth known as a round barrow ; sometimes with a distinctive style of finely decorated pottery – like those at Llanharry ( discovered 1929 ) and at Llandaff ( 1991 ) – that gave rise to the Early Bronze Age being described as Beaker culture.

From c. 3350 BP, a worsening climate began to make agriculture unsustainable in upland areas.

The resulting population pressures appear to have led to conflict.

Hill forts began to be built from the Late Bronze Age ( and throughout the Iron Age ( 3150 – 1900 BP )) and the amount and quality of weapons increased noticeably – along the regionally distinctive tribal lines of the Iron Age.