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Totnes is the first link in the legendary history of England. Brutus, the Trojan, according to early Welsh and Breton tradition, landed ‘on the coast of Totnes and in the pages of Geoffrey of Monmouth one may read the full-blown myth, ending in the destruction of the last of the aboriginal giants Goemagot by Corinaeus, after wards Duke of Cornwall. There was a time when all this was deemed purely historical. Totnes, claiming to be the landing-place of Brutus, has yet a traditional Brutus Stone, on which the Trojan hero is said to have stepped when he landed a boulder of no great dimensions, well up the main street. Plymouth cherished the belief that the combat between Corinaeus and Goemagot took place upon her Hoe; and so far back as the fifteenth century there were graven in the sward of that eminence two huge figures, popularly supposed to represent the combatants, renewed as need was, and of unknown antiquity. It is quite possible, indeed, that both the
‘Brutus Stone’ of Totnes and the ‘Gogmagog’ of Plymouth originated with the Gog and Magog of London City in the popularity of Geoffrey’s story. Historically they cannot be carried back so far.
A careful examination of the passages in the older Totnes.
Chronicles wherein Totnes is noticed shows, however, that this was not the modern town. Geoffrey of Monmouth speaks of the coast of Totnes, and the shore of Totnes, and the port of Totnes, and always with some such qualification. The inference, therefore, is that the name was used by ancient writers as that of a district. It was evidently so employed by Higden in his Polychronicon,’ in quoting the length of Britain as eight hundred miles,a ‘Totonesio litore,’ rendered by Trevisa ‘ from the clyf Brutus. of Totonesse,’ which is really only another name for the Land’s End. Totnes thus seems to be in truth the
ancient name for the south-western promontory of England, perhaps a name for Britain itself, in which case we can understand somewhat of the motive that led early etymologists to derive Britain from Brute, or The myth may be so far true that an elder name was supplanted, and that it lingered longest in the western promontory. Whether the modern Totnes is nominally the successor of the ancient title, the narrow area into which this vestige of far antiquity has shrunk, may be doubtful, for the word is as capable of a Teutonic derivation as of a Keltic. The last syllable may be the
Northern ness, but it may as well be the Keltic enys reads island.’ And so while Tot may be an ‘enclosure,’ it may equally be the Dod which still exists on the westcoast in the name of the Dodman headland the ‘prominent rock’ (man read maen, a stone). Totnes, therefore, can be read ‘the projecting or prominent island.’ The speculation in dealing with a point of such singular interest. In any case, it seems probable that this story of Brutus the Trojan is not absolute fable, but the traditionary record of the earliest invasion of the land by an historic people
The most amusing derivation for the name of the town is quoted by Westcote and Risdon—Tout al’aise reads all at ease ’ presumed to represent the feelings of Brutus 
History of Devonshire
when he stepped on shore, and exclaimed in the words of a traditional couplet: ‘ Here I stand, and here I rest, And this place shall be called Totnes.’ But the ‘ authorities on this head are very sceptical
here concerning the extent of the French education which Brutus had received when  the Frenche of Parys was to alle unknowne.’ This same line of argument disposes also of the idea that Vespasian landed at Totnes town instead of simply on the Totnes shore, which again has led to Exeter being mistakenly identified as Caer Pensauelcoit, as in Geoffrey’s gloss, ‘ quae Exonia vocatur.’ Mr. T. Kerslake
has pointed out that in all probability the oldest name for the place at which Vespasian landed is Talnas, as given in the Brut Tysilio. This, he argues, would resolve itself into ’tAlnas, and suggests that the landing really took place in Ptolemy’s estuary of the Alaunas, or Christchurch Haven; and that Pensauelcoit is to be found at Penselwood, in the Somerset, Dorset, and Wilts border-land, in which, indeed, the old name is still visibly extant. Totnes has been claimed as a Roman station, but without adequate authority. An ancient paved way leading towards Berry Pomeroy may mark the line of a
Roman road, but all that can definitely be said is that the town does stand on the line of one of the ancient British trackways. The idea that it was connected with the Fosseway is corrected elsewhere.
Totnes was an Anglo-Saxon mint, and continued to issue coins for some time after the Conquest; but only twenty-six varieties of pennies are known to have been struck here, and the probability is that the number was considerably greater. The extant series commences with AEoelred the second, who began his reign in nine seventy nine , and continues under Cnut. Then, however, there is a gap, and nothing there.
Totnes. more is known of Totnes mintage, save a penny of Rufus. Probably further research by numismatologists in this direction would be rewarded. It can very well be understood that the mint would cease its operations when the Norman lord of the town fell under the displeasure of Rufus, but intermission of the nature suggested is not so easily accounted for. The definite history of Totnes prior to the Conquest is scanty; but its position at the time of the compilation of ‘ Domesday ’ shows not only that it was then a town of considerable importance, but that it must have been of great antiquity to have attained such a position. One of the four burghs of Devon, it had a larger population than either of its rivals, save Exeter, having ninety-five burgesses within the burgh and fifteen without tilling the land. This would give the community a total population of five hundred or six hundred , while Exeter in all probability had some two thousand five hundred to three thousand. Before the Conquest Totnes formed part of the demesne of the Confessor. William gave it with one hundred and seven manors in Devon to his follower, Judhel or Joel, who made Totnes his chief residence, and was thereafter named Judhel of Totnes. An active and liberal man, Judhel found time, before he was banished by Rufus, to leave his mark upon the head of his barony. Totnes Castle is doubtfully said
to have been built by him. The keep, which remains in fine preservation, seems of later date; and probably re placed the ‘ strength ’ which he undoubtedly reared upon the mound that still marks the site of the ancient British fortalice. The walls of the town are far later than his time; and the most important of the two gates which continue is not earlier than the sixteenth century. The present circumvallation dates in all probability from twelve sixty five , when Henry the eighth gave the burgesses liberty to enclose the town with a wall, and to collect murage for that object.But Judhel undoubtedly founded the Priory of St. Mary,

Domesday.

Land of Iudhael of Totnes
Households
Households: 10 villagers. 11 smallholders. 8 slaves.
Land and resources
Ploughland: 6 ploughlands. 1.5 lord's plough teams. 2.5 men's plough teams.
Other resources: 0.12 lord's lands. Meadow 50 acres. Pasture 1 league * 1 furlong mixed measures. Woodland 1 league * 1 furlong mixed measures.
Livestock
Livestock in 1086: 31 cattle. 4 pigs. 200 sheep. 8 goats.
Valuation
Annual value to lord: 4 pounds in 1086; 6 pounds when acquired by the 1086 owner.
Owners
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Iudhael of Totnes.
Lord in 1086: Nigel.
Lord in 1066: Cynestan of Broadwoodwidger.
Other information
Phillimore reference: Devon 17,5

The Discovery of Great Britain by the Romans ,the mercantile Phoenicians traded to the Scilly islands, the Cassiterides, or land of tin, from the port of Cadiz, four hundred years before Christ.

The Romans, for a considerable time, could not discover the place from whence the former procured the precious metal. They attempted to detect the trade, by following the course of a Phoenician vessel; but the master, faithful to the interest of his country, voluntarily run his ship ashore in another place; preferring the loss of all, rather than consider a foreign nation to become partakers of so profitable a secret.

The public immediately compensated it's loss out of its treasury. This did but make the Romans more eager for the discovery; and after many trials they succeeded. Publius Crassus ,father of Marcus Crassus the Triumvir who was praetor, and governed Spain for several years, landed in the Cassiterides, and found the report of their riches verified. As soon as the Romans made a conquest of the country, they formed in the tin province camps and roads, still visible; and left behind vases, urns, sepulchres, and money, that exhibit daily proofs of their having been a stationary people in those parts and that Dunmonium extended even to the Belerian promontory, or the Land’s-end

COPPER. longer ignorant of arts than continents; especially ours, which lay far to the west of the origin of all science. Strabo says , that the Britons imported works of brass; but it is as certain, that they afterwards did themselves fabricate that metal into instruments. The Kelts, a British, instrument, was made in this island. Numbers have been found in Yorkshire, and Essex", together with cinders, and lumps of melted metal; which evidence the place of a forge. The Romans had then founderies of copper in our island; and cast the metal into regular forms. A mass was found at Kaerhen, the antient Conovium, four miles above Conway, which probably was smelted from the ore of the Snowdon hills; where of late years much has been raised.This mass is in shape of a cake of beeswax; and on the upper part is a deep concave impression, with the words Socio Romae; across these is impressed obliquely, in lesser letters, Natsol. I cannot explain it, unless Nat. stands for Natio, the people who paid this species of tribute; and sol. for solvit, that being the stamp- master’s mark.

These cakes might be bought up by a merchant resident in Britain, and consigned to Socio Romae, to his partner at Rome. The weight of this antiquity is forty-two pounds;  as in Borlase, Antiquities

TIN. COPPER. and was not, as some writers imagine, limited by the western parts of Somersetshire. It is not to be imagined, that they could neglect a corner of our island, productive of a metal so useful in mechanics as tin, and which it yielded in such plenty, as to receive from that circumstance the name. So great was the intercourse that foreign nations had with the inhabitants bordering on Belerium, as to give them a greater scavoir vivre, and more extensive hospitality, than was to be found in other parts of the island. They were equally expert in working the mines, and preparing the ore, which lay in earthy veins within the rocky strata. They melted and purified it, then cast it into rows of cubes, and carried it to let is, the modern Mount Saint Michael: from thence it was transported into Gaul; conveyed from the place it was landed at, on horses’ backs, a journey of thirty days, to the mouth of the Rhone, and also to the Massylians, and the town of Narbonne".
Copper. Did not Caesar and Strabo agree in their account, I should never have believed it possible that the Britons could have neglected their rich mines of copper, and have been obliged at first to import that metal. Perhaps the ore was less accessible, and the art of fusion unknown; for islands, from their very situation, must remain Diodorus Siculus, 

Geography by Ptolemy,

Latin manuscript of the early fifteenth century Ptolemy's other main work is his Geography also called the Geographia, a compilation of geographical coordinates of the part of the world known to the Roman Empire during his time. He relied somewhat on the work of an earlier geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire. He also acknowledged ancient astronomer Hipparchus for having provided the elevation of the north celestial pole for a few cities. The first part of the Geography is a discussion of the data and of the methods he used. As with the model of the Solar System in the Almagest, Ptolemy put all this information into a grand scheme. Following Marinos, he assigned coordinates to all the places and geographic features he knew, in a grid that spanned the globe. Latitude was measured from the equator, as it is today, but Ptolemy preferred to express it as climata, the length of the longest day rather than degrees of arc: the length of the midsummer day increases from twelve hours to twenty four hours as one goes from the equator to the polar circle. In books two through seven, he used degrees and put the meridian of "0" longitude at the most western land he knew, the "Blessed Islands", often identified as the Canary Islands, as suggested by the location of the six dots labelled the "FORTUNATA" islands near the left extreme of the blue sea of Ptolemy's map here reproduced. A 15th-century manuscript copy of the Ptolemy world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy's Geography circa AD one fifty, indicating the countries of "Serica" and "Sinae" (China) at the extreme east, beyond the island of "Taprobane" Sri Lanka, oversized, and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (Malay Peninsula).

Prima Europe tabula. A fifteenth-century copy of Ptolemy's map of Britain and Ireland. Ptolemy also devised and provided instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world , oikoumenè) and of the Roman provinces. In the second part of the Geography, he provided the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. His oikoumenè spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Blessed Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of China, and about 80 degrees of latitude from Shetland to anti-Meroe ,east coast of Africa; Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe, and an erroneous extension of China southward suggests his sources did not reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The maps in surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geography, however, only date from about 1300, after the text was rediscovered by Maximus Planudes. It seems likely that the topographical tables in books 2–7 are cumulative texts – texts which were altered and added to as new knowledge became available in the centuries after Ptolemy. This means that information contained in different parts of the Geography is likely to be of different dates. A printed map from the 15th century depicting Ptolemy's description of the Ecumene, (1482, Johannes Schnitzer, engraver). Maps based on scientific principles had been made since the time of Eratosthenes, in the 3rd century BC, but Ptolemy improved map projections. It is known from a speech by Eumenius that a world map, an orbis pictus, doubtless based on the Geography, was on display in a school in Augustodunum, Gaul in the 3rd century.  In the 15th century, Ptolemy's Geography began to be printed with engraved maps; the earliest printed edition with engraved maps was produced in Bologna in 1477, followed quickly by a Roman edition in 1478 . An edition printed at Ulm in 1482, including woodcut maps, was the first one printed north of the Alps. The maps look distorted when compared to modern maps, because Ptolemy's data were inaccurate. One reason is that Ptolemy estimated the size of the Earth as too small: while Eratosthenes found 700 stadia for a great circle degree on the globe, Ptolemy uses 500 stadia in the Geography. It is highly probable that these were the same stadion, since Ptolemy switched from the former scale to the latter between the Syntaxis and the Geography, and severely readjusted longitude degrees accordingly. See also Ancient Greek units of measurement and History of geodesy. Because Ptolemy derived many of his key latitudes from crude longest day values, his latitudes are erroneous on average by roughly a degree two degrees for Byzantium, four degrees for Carthage), though capable ancient astronomers knew their latitudes to more like a minute. Ptolemy's own latitude was in error by fourteen degrees. He agreed that longitude was best determined by simultaneous observation of lunar eclipses, yet he was so out of touch with the scientists of his day that he knew of no such data more recent than five hundred years before the Arbela eclipse. When switching from seven hundred stadia per degree to five hundred, he or Marinos expanded longitude differences between cities accordingly a point first realized by P. Gosselin in seventeen ninety, resulting in serious over-stretching of the Earth's east-west scale in degrees, though not distance. Achieving highly precise longitude remained a problem in geography until the application of Galileo's Jovian moon method in the 18th century. It must be added that his original topographic list cannot be reconstructed: the long tables with numbers were transmitted to posterity through copies containing many scribal errors, and people have always been adding or improving the topographic data: this is a testimony to the persistent popularity of this influential work in the history of cartography.

Brutus is explicitly the grandson,rather than son, of  Ascanius ;

his  father  is  Ascanius '

son Silvius.
The magician  who predicts great things for the unborn Brutus also foretells he will kill both his parents.

He does so , in the same manner described in the Historia Britonum, and is banished.

Travelling to Greece, he discovers a group of Trojans enslaved there.

He becomes their leader, and after a series of battles they defeat the Greek king Pandrasus by attacking his camp at night after capturing the guards.

He takes him hostage and forces him to let his people go.

He is given Pandrasus's daughter Ignoge in marriage, and ships and provisions for the voyage, and sets sail.
The Trojans land on a deserted island and discover an abandoned temple to Diana.

After performing the appropriate ritual, Brutus falls asleep in front of the goddess's statue and is given a vision of the land where he is destined to settle,

an island in the western ocean inhabited only by a few giants.
After some adventures in north Africa and a close encounter with the Sirens, Brutus discovers another group of exiled Trojans living on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea, led by the prodigious warrior Corineus.

In Gaul, Corineus provokes a war with Goffarius Pictus, king of Aquitaine, after hunting in the king's forests without permission.

Brutus's nephew Turonus dies in the fighting, and the city of Tours is founded where he is buried.

The Trojans win most of their battles but are conscious that the Gauls have the advantage of numbers, so go back to their ships and sail for Britain, then called Albion

They land on "Totonesium litus the sea-coast of Totnes.

They meet the giant descendants of Albion and defeat them

Brutus renames the island after himself and becomes its first king

Corineus becomes ruler of Cornwall, which is named after him

 They are harassed by the giants during a festival, but kill all of them but their leader, the largest giant Goemagot,

who is saved for a wrestling match against Corineus.

Corineus throws him over a cliff to his death.

Brutus then founds a city on the banks of the River Thames, which he calls Troia Nova, or New Troy.

The name is in time corrupted to Trinovantum, and the city is later called London.

He creates laws for his people and rules for twenty-four years.

After his death he is buried in Trinovantum, and the island is divided between his three sons, Locrinus (England), Albanactus (Scotland) and Kamber (Wales).

Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a reassessment K J Fitzpatrick-Matthews

This does not solve the problem of why the Cosmographer should have seen Isca Dumnoniorum, Exeter, as a point at which to insert a break in his listing. The Peutinger Table may offer a clue: although Britain is severely truncated, with only East Anglia and Kent appearing on the surviving copy, Moridunum and Isca Dumnoniorum are also shown without any intervening south-coast places. It is possible that Isca Dumnoniorum was depicted as prominent in some way, perhaps isolated on a promontory or, as seems more likely, as the gateway to a peninsula (as suggested by Rivet & Smith 1979, 200). In this way the Cosmographer might have decided to break his text at a point which appeared dictated by the geography of the region. He does so further north, where his listing of the Antonine Wall forts occurs ‘where that same Britain is seen to be narrowest from sea to sea’ (ubi et ipsa britania plus angustissima de oceano in oceanum esse dinoscitur 10750 to 10751). Although this was not the primary reason for inserting a break at this latter point, the Cosmographer was clearly sensitive to the depicted shape of the island.

14

On the other hand,

we should perhaps take into account the curious fact that the Civitas Dumnoniorum (basically the Cornish peninsula west of Exeter) appears to have been a part of Britain virtually unaffected by those changes to élite behaviour usually termed ‘romanisation’.

Is it possible that much of it lay outside provincial or diocesan control and that some kind of border was depicted on the Cosmographer’s map source as separating the south-western peninsula from the rest of Britain?

In that case,

Isca Dumnoniorum may have been prominent as a point of contact between the wilds of the far south-west and the more ‘civilised’ Durotriges (or Durotrages, following RIB 1673: the form of the name is very uncertain according to Rivet & Smith 1979, 352) to the east.

Group 1: the Cornish Peninsula V ¶31 in qua britania plurimas fuisse ciuitates et castra legimus ex quibus aliquantas designare uolumus id est:
Giano Barnstaple ? 10546
Eltabo River Taw 10546
Elconio River Torridge ? 10547
Nemetotatio North Tawton 10547
Tamaris Launceston ? 10548
Puro coronauis ? 10548
Pilais ? 10549
Vernilis Liskeard ? 10549
Ardua rauenatone River Dart 10550
Deuionisso Statio ? 10551
deuentia steno Buckfastleigh / Totnes ? 10551/10552
Duriarno Plymouth 10552
Vxelis Barnstaple ? 1061
Verteuia Land’s End 1061 = 1069

Instead,

it may be the name of a site in the vicinity of Plymouth where the inhumation cemetery at Mount Batten and a sequence of coins attest a settlement of some importance (Thomas 1966a, 86).

Uxelis is too far west to be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὔξελλα (II.3, 13), which must be on the River Parrett, his Οὐεξάλλα εἴσχυσις (II.3,2), and may be a site or river in Cornwall, perhaps the Fowey or the Fal, unless it is an example of a name written to the west of its symbol on the map source. If this is the case, then it may have been near Barnstaple (Strang 1997, 30). Group 2: the south Devon and Cornish coast Melamoni Sidford ? 1062 = 1064/1069/10613
Scadumnamorum Exeter 1062
Termonin ? 1063
Mesteuia Land’s End 1063 = 1061
The mention of Moridunum, Sidford ?, for the first time indicates a change of direction, and there are now hints of an ordering of names with a general progression from east to west. The -l- for -r- in Moridunum is also found in the next section; it may be that the name was very difficult to read in the Cosmographer’s source. It is unlikely to have occurred as a result of misreading two separate documents, further evidence for the essential unity of the Cosmographer’s sources. The unlocated *Terminum would have been somewhere between Exeter and Land’s End, an admittedly imprecise location. The River Gowy in Cheshire was formerly known as the aqua de Tervin (‘water of Tarvin’) in 1209, the name deriving from the Latin terminus, ‘boundary’, via Welsh Terfyn (Dodgson 1970, 26), which has been retained by a large parish and village. Although the origin of the latter name is generally sought in the post-Roman politics of the region (Bu’Lock 1972, 24), it is probable that the River Gowy was the eastern boundary of the prata legionis of the fortress at Chester. Could a similar origin be suggested for this name, at the western boundary of the prata legionis of the early fortress at Exeter or the territorium of the later capital of the Civitas Dumnoniorum?

Definition of medieval

The adjective medieval literally means “of the Middle Ages,” i.e., the period between antiquity (the Roman world) and the early modern era 

Common chronological range

Historians most often treat the Middle Ages as roughly the 5th century to the 15th century: from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (commonly dated 476) up to the Renaissance and early modern transitions around 1400–1500 

Standard subperiods and their usual dates

• Early Middle Ages: about 500–1000.
• High Middle Ages: about 1000–1300.
• Late Middle Ages: about 1300–1500.
  These are conventional labels; exact boundaries vary by region and by the historian’s focus 

What authors usually mean when they write “medieval”

• Broad cultural sense: the social, political, religious, and material world shaped by feudal institutions, Christendom, and post‑Roman societies in Europe between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance 
• In specialised works an author may narrow the term (for example, “medieval urban law” might mean 1100–1400), so check the author’s period definition in introductions or captions 

Origin and first use of the word

The English term derives from Latin medium aevum “middle age.” The modern English adjective (often spelled mediaeval earlier) was coined in the 19th century from that Latin phrase; recorded modern forms date from the early 1800s (commonly cited 1825 for the form medieval/mediaeval) 

Quick guidance for reading historical scripts

When you encounter “medieval” in a text, assume 5th–15th centuries unless the author states otherwise; for precise work always look for the author’s explicit chronological scope because usages and boundary years differ by topic and region 

Bronze Age time boundaries overview

The Bronze Age is a cultural-technical phase defined by the pervasive use of bronze (an alloy of copper with tin or arsenic), alongside associated changes in technology, trade, burial practice, and social organisation. Its absolute dates vary widely by region because metallurgy and associated cultural changes spread at different times. Below are commonly used regional ranges and practical guidance for tagging or labelling gazetteer entries.

Common regional date ranges

• Near East and Anatolia
  Early Bronze Age: c. 3300–2100 BCE; Middle Bronze Age: c. 2100–1600 BCE; Late Bronze Age: c. 1600–1200 BCE.
• Aegean (Greece and Cyclades)
  Early Bronze Age: c. 3000–2000 BCE; Middle Bronze Age: c. 2000–1600 BCE; Late Bronze Age: c. 1600–1100 BCE.
• Central and Western Europe
  Broad Bronze Age: c. 2300–800 BCE; subdivided (Early/Middle/Late) roughly as Early c. 2300–1500 BCE, Middle c. 1500–1200 BCE, Late c. 1200–800 BCE.
• British Isles (including Devon and Cornwall)
  Broad Bronze Age: c. 2500–800 BCE; Early Bronze Age often starts c. 2500–2000 BCE (after Late Neolithic/Beaker horizons), Late Bronze Age ends c. 800 BCE.
• South Asia (Indian subcontinent)
  Indus-related Bronze Age/Harappan: c. 3300–1300 BCE (mature Harappan c. 2600–1900 BCE); local Bronze-using traditions continue and overlap with early Iron use.
• East Asia
  Bronze Age in China: roughly c. 2000–771 BCE (Xia-Shang-Zhou sequences; Shang c. 1600–1046 BCE is strongly bronze-rich).
• The Americas and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa
  No true widespread Bronze Age phase comparable to Old World sequences; metallurgy often appears much later and in different forms.

Practical guidance for mapping and gazetteer work

• Use region-specific ranges rather than a single global boundary.
• For ambiguous or single-site reports, prefer relative labels: Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, or Bronze Age (broad)with a numeric range (e.g., Bronze Age c. 2500–800 BCE).
• Where chronology is uncertain, record both: cultural label(Bronze Age) and confidence/precision(e.g., high if radiocarbon dated; low if typological only).
• Include key local markers in metadata: metallurgy present; Beaker/urnfield/bronze-ritual features; radiocarbon dates range; typology links.
• Allow fields for overlapping phases (e.g., “Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age transitional”) and for caveats like reuse or later disturbance.

Why ranges differ and how to communicate that

• Start and end dates depend on: first local alloy production; availability of tin or copper sources and trade; cultural adoption of bronze technologies; and the arrival of ironworking.
• Use wording that communicates variability: “Bronze Age (regional: c. 2500–800 BCE)”or “Bronze Age — British Isles convention: c. 2500–800 BCE”.
• When precision matters, attach dating evidence: radiocarbon ranges, stratigraphic context, or diagnostic artefact types.

Short recommended labels for database fields

• Period label: Bronze Age
• Region qualifier: e.g., British Isles
• Numeric range: e.g., c. 2500–800 BCE
• Subdivision: Early / Middle / Late (if known)
• Dating confidence: High / Medium / Low
• Dating evidence: Radiocarbon; typology; stratigraphy; historical reference