The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology

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Taunton Phase

Taunton Phase [CP].
An industrial tradition within the KNIGHTON HEATH PERIOD of the British middle Bronze Age that flourished in the period 1400–1200 BC and is named after a large hoard of metalwork found in the grounds of the Taunton workhouse, Somerset, in 1877. Comparable hoards have been found at Bishopsland, Co. Kildare in Ireland, and this stage is sometimes referred to as the Taunton–Bishopsland Phase in western parts of the British Isles. The Taunton Phase is characterized by local copying of imported continental objects, especially ornaments such as twisted torcs, armlets, lozenge-section penannulars, ribbed bracelets, cones, coiled finger-rings, and many different kinds of pin. Tools and weapons also benefited from these wider influences, especially the introduction of the basal-looped spearhead with leaf-shaped blades. The presence of so many ornaments and the continental connections led M. A. Smith to suggest...

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