Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (45 page)

Early industrial stage of the British early Bronze Age spanning the 16th and 15th centuries
bc
and part of Burgess's
BEDD BRANWEN PERIOD
. Named after a small hoard of weapons found at Arreton Down on the Isle of Wight in December 1735, the industry is characterized by the production of flat axes, tanged spearheads, end-looped spearheads, tanged and collared spearheads, chisels and tracers.

 
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The sharp edge formed, for instance, at the meeting point of two flutes in the Doric column, a vulnerable feature of the order, rectified in the Ionic by the substitution of a flat narrow fillet between the flutes.

 
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Stone or metal tip for mounting at the business end of a wooden arrow shaft to increase the penetrating power or modify the impact of the arrow when it strikes its target. The earliest arrowheads are of upper Palaeolithic date; in Britain Neolithic arrowheads are typically of leaf-shaped form, while Bronze Age examples are triangular in outline, with a tang for hafting and barbs for increasing attachment to the target.

 
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A single block of stone, or more unusually a pair of stones, with a straight groove on one face which was rubbed up and down the shaft of an arrow to straighten and smooth it.

 
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The dry bed of a seasonal stream.

 
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A steel-grey semi-metallic element (As) that is highly toxic but which occurs naturally in many copper deposits and which was later sought after and added to bronze by early European metalworkers in order to improve the casting properties of their metal.

 
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