ABSTRACT
The custom of dividing prehistory into a Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age grew up for the convenience of museum curators and archaeologists. But although in the nineteenth century the discovery of metal was seen as a significant mile stone on the march of progress, in reality the ‘Stone Age’ world of the later Neolithic monument builders was not radically altered by the new technology. A decisive break with the past did not occur until the latter half of the second millennium BC, well into the so-called Bronze Age. Only then were traditions of ritual and burial that had evolved over countless generations given up and sites that had been venerated for hundreds, or even thousands of years, abandoned for ever.
