Mallorca, Spain

Welcome to the slightly less sun-drenched library of Hughenden Manor in Buckinghamshire and Time Team extra. My guest this week is Professor Richard Bradley of the University of Reading. Together, we hope to unravel some of the mysteries of the Beaker culture. If we’re ever dug up in 4000 years time, it’s interesting to speculate, what would be the fashion accessories of our day? The mobile phone perhaps or the Sony walkman. The Beaker period, it was this, a simple decorated beaker. This one’s a replica, but you can see the original in Disraeli’s Museum. The Beaker period began about 2500 BC and lasted about 600 years. In Europe this was the period known as the Copper Age, and in Britain, it coincided with the early Bronze Age period when metal was first being worked.