LIFE IN THE BRONZE AGE (1700–500 BCE)

Large burial cairns and impressive petroglyph sites suggest that people were preoccupied with rituals and mythology. There are few traces of everyday life, but we know that people settled to a larger degree during this era. Grave findings containing imported items and traces of foreign customs are evidence of contact with distant societies.

The new metal, bronze, has given name to this period, but for the vast majority, stone and flint remained important materials. Stone axe findings provides clues to where and how people utilised natural resources. They kept livestock, and some cultivated fields. They were hunters and fishermen, gathered plants, berries and roots and cleared forests. In this way, human activity also helped open up the landscape.