From Genesis to Prehistory: The Archaeological Three Age System and its Contested Reception in Denmark, Britain, and Ireland

The now familiar Three Age System, the archaeological partitioning of the past into Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, was conceived in Denmark in the 1830s. Peter Rowley-Conwy investigates the reasons why the system was adopted without demur in Scandinavia, yet was the subject of a bitter and protracted contest in Britain and Ireland up to the 1870s.

We are now familiar with the Three Age System, the archaeological partitioning of the past into Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. This division, which amounted at the time to a major scientific revolution, was conceived in Denmark in the 1830s. Peter Rowley-Conwy investigates the reasons why the Three Age system was adopted without demur in Scandinavian archaeological circles, yet was the subject of a bitter and long-drawn-out contest in Britain and Ireland, up to the 1870s.

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