Defining regional identities in prehistory is fraught with problems. Particular forms of artefact or monument may be used to suggest links between local culture groups, but many are very widespread or alternatively show different, overlapping geographical distributions. There is now much debate among archaeologists as to how closely specific forms of material culture relate to a population who actually saw themselves as a distinct cultural group, or ‘nation’.

In Bronze Age Britain and Ireland, regional identities can only be identified patchily and rather diffusely. There were few clear-cut regional boundaries despite the fact that many cultural elements were concentrated in just one part of the islands rather than throughout. This lack of any strong regionality suggests that generally Bronze Age society was open to influences from both near and afar. Social competition and conflict certainly occurred but only later in the period did land and territory begin to be the subject of contest.

One region of Britain that seems to have had a more persistent and definable identity than most was south-west England This may have been brought on in part by it being a peninsula and in part by its unusual resource base including extensive coastal fishing grounds, unequalled tin deposits and variety of other rock and mineral types.