Catherine J. Frieman & Caroline Schuster/The Conversation We have no written evidence about how people lived in Europe during the Bronze Age (2300–800 BC), so archaeologists piece together their world from the artifacts and materials they left behind. Unlike perishable materials such as wool or wood, it’s the metal that has been well preserved. Considerable archaeological attention focuses on elite members of society, largely because common people left fewer traces. A new study suggests we can learn something about these everyday people from buried hoards of metal – and that their economic lives were much like our own. Why Did People Bury Hoards of Metal? During the Bronze Age, it was a common practice across Europe to deposit hoards of metalwork in the ground. People would gather metal objects and then bury them together or place them at a special location, such as a bog or a boundary. Sometimes these hoards included many objects, sometimes just a few. Sometimes they were composed of a single type of object – hoards of tens of axes of the same form are a well-known example. Sometimes they included a variety of objects, and even fragments of broken objects. Read moreSection: ArtifactsAncient TechnologyNewsHistory & ArchaeologyRead Later