Diapositiva 1

1
BRITISH PREHISTORY
ABETINI MATTEO IACUMIN JESSICA 3A
2
EARLIEST TIME AND PEOPLE

• Britain has not always been an island
• It became an island after the end of the last ice
  age, because sea levels rose as the ice sheets
  melted, and Britain became separated from the
  European mainland shortly before 6000 BC
• The people living in Britain were descendants of
  the first homo sapiens who arrived in Europe
  30000 40000 years ago
• They lived they lived by hunting and gathering

3
NEOLITHIC INTRODUCTION OF FARMING

• Change from a hunter-gatherer to a farming way of
  life
• Farming started to develop in Britain between
  5000BC and 4500 BC
• Introduction of farming into Britain was the
  result of a huge migration
• It took about 2000 years to spread across the
  island
• The first farmers brought the ancestors of
  cattle, sheep and goats with them from the
  continent

4
EARLY SETTLEMENTS

• The earliest Neolithic sites (approx 4000 - 5000
  BC) occur alongside late Mesolithic settlements
• From the start of the fourth millennium BC , we
  see a move into new areas not exploited
  previously
• In this period were built the first large
  communal tombs
• There are also ceremonial monuments, people from
  communities in a particular region would gather
  together
• Some of these monuments, called henges, were
  built according to the position of the sun, one
  of these was Stonehenge, developed about 3000 BC

5
STONEHENGE

• Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument composed of
  a circular setting of large standing stones set
  within earthworks.
• It was built in several phases spanning hundreds
  of years, from around 3000 BC to 1600 BC
• There are many theories about the reason for the
  building but none has been proved
• People generally believe that it was a place of
  worship and ritual or a site of healing

6
BRONZE AGE

• People lived in settlements consisted of round
  houses, made from timber, which were often
  grouped together
• Arrival of new styles of metalwork
• First field systems in Britain
• Construction of a few hillforts, which were used
  for trade and religious activities,and the start
  of the so-called 'Celtic' way of life

7
IRON AGE (800 B.C.-43 A.D.)

• Gradual introduction of iron working technology
• Trading and exchange contacts between Britain and
  mainland Europe developed in the Bronze Age
  continued
• Introduction of the potter's wheel, the lathe and
  the rotary quern
• Introduction of new crops (new varieties of
  barley and wheat), peas, beans
• New farming techniques (iron plough)
• As a consequence, the population grew

8
RELIGION AND BELIEF

• Archaeologists believe that the Celts worshipped
  their gods through sacrifice
• But material treasures weren't the only
  sacrifices, in fact were sacrificed animals, and
  even humans, to their gods.
• The Celts also sacrificed weapons to the gods by
  throwing them into lakes and rivers
• The Celtic religion was closely related to the
  natural world and they worshipped gods in sacred
  places like lakes, rivers, cliffs and bushes.
• The Celts recognis the beginning of the warm
  season they had two annual festivals and on a
  social level, Samhain was a transitional period,
  when the spirits could pass between the two
  worlds(Halloween).

9
IRON AGE LIFE

• Some of the Celts at least were skilled artists
  and craft workers
• Pottery
• Forging
• Collecting water
• Animal husbandry
• Curing animal skin
• An ard
• Dyeing
• Charcoal-making
• An antler pick
• Rotary quernstone
• A pole lathe
• Smelting iron

10
THE END OF THE AGE OF IRON

• By the end of the Iron Age, amongst other things,
  coinage had been introduced, wheel thrown pottery
  was being made, there was an increased interest
  in personal appearance, people had started to
  live in larger and more settled communities, and
  the mortuary rites of society had changed.
• All of the domestic life would have occurred
  within the site of Chysauster in Cornwall It was
  made up of individual houses of stone with garden
  plots, clustered along a street.