Editing History of England (section)

====Bronze Age====
[[File:Bush Barrow.jpg|thumb|Artefacts from [[Bush Barrow]] at Stonehenge. [[Wessex culture]], [[Bronze Age Britain|Early Bronze Age]], {{circa|1900 BC}}]]

The [[Bronze Age Britain|Bronze Age]] began around 2500&nbsp;BC with the appearance of bronze objects. This coincides with the appearance of the characteristic [[Bell Beaker culture]], following migration of new people from the continent. According to Olalde et al. (2018), after 2500&nbsp;BC Britain's Neolithic population was largely replaced by this new Bell Beaker population, that was genetically related to the [[Corded Ware culture]] of central and eastern Europe and the [[Yamnaya culture]] of the eastern European [[Pontic-Caspian Steppe]].<ref>Olalde etal. (2018), [https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25738 ''The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe''], Nature</ref><ref>The Guardian, [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/21/arrival-of-beaker-folk-changed-britain-forever-ancient-dna-study-shows ''Arrival of Beaker folk changed Britain for ever, ancient DNA study shows'']</ref> While the migration of these Beaker peoples must have been accompanied by a language shift, the Celtic languages were probably introduced by later Celtic migrations.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43115485 | title=Ancient Britons 'replaced' by newcomers| work=BBC News| date=2018-02-21| last1=Rincon| first1=Paul}}</ref>

The Bronze Age saw a shift of emphasis from the communal to the individual, and the rise of increasingly powerful elites whose power came from their prowess as hunters and warriors and their controlling the flow of precious resources to manipulate tin and copper into high-status bronze objects such as swords and axes. Settlement became increasingly permanent and intensive. Towards the end of the Bronze Age, many examples of very fine metalwork began to be deposited in rivers, presumably for ritual reasons and perhaps reflecting a progressive change in emphasis from the sky to the earth, as a rising population put increasing pressure on the land. England largely became bound up with the [[Atlantic Bronze Age|Atlantic trade system]], which created a cultural continuum over a large part of Western Europe.<ref name="ReferenceA">Francis Pryor, ''Britain BC'', 2003</ref> It is possible that the [[Celtic languages]] developed or spread to England as part of this system; by the end of the Iron Age there is much evidence that they were spoken across all England and western parts of Britain.<ref>Barry Cunliffe, ''The Ancient Celts'', 1997</ref>