All material culture changes with time, but archaeology has to try to determine the causes of those changes. In the Bronze Age there were none of the rapidly changing fashions of today. Instead change came either gradually and subconsciously, or as a result of some perceived economic, spiritual or status benefit. Culture was essentially rather conservative and change for change’s sake would have been unthinkable.

Against this background, some developments in Bronze Age ceramics are puzzling. Early in the period certain ceramic traditions sprang up seemingly fully fledged. Nothing comparable occurs in neighbouring Europe, nor is it easy to find indigenous prototypes. Collared Urns, for example, were an entirely new innovation in Britain, perhaps developed to accompany a new type of burial. The Food Vessel style had a more complex history beginning with the Irish Bowls in eastern Ireland. A little later, communities in northern England absorbed and adapted the main elements of the tradition to create the classic ‘Yorkshire’ Vase.

Innovation also at times involved marked changes in the technology of production, the fabric (constituents) of the clays used, or the choice of decorative motifs. Many of these developments would have reflected changing social circumstances.