EARLY ENGLAND From Hunter-gatherers to the Romans

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EARLY ENGLANDFrom Hunter-gatherers to the
Romans
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The evolution of the British IslesThe
geological stages of the formation of the island
(reflected in the present landscape)
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2700 mln. years agoVolcanic eruptions Rocks
in the Scottish Highlands
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mln. years ago-seas covered the south of
Britain
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Later alternation of floods and drying outs
(growing forests, swamps)rottening of
vegetationpeat formed and compressedcoal in
S.Wales, Yorkshire, Kent, N.England
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280-200 mln. years ago Britain was a desert
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150 mln. Years ago plants and animals
appeared again
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70 mln. Years agoseas at the highest level
Britain was blanketed by the fragments of algae
CHALK(up to 500 m thick in some places white
cliffs of the s. coast)
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2,5 mln. years ago succession of ice ages
(12)Average temp. 6-9 C(As far as to
London)Signs of erosion in the Lake District,
Snowdonia, Scottish Highlands
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MAN APPEARED
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Old Stone Age (Paleolithic)70,000-8000 BC

• Alternation of warm and ice-age conditions
• For most Britain is glaciated
• Sea level is low. Land-bridges between England
  and Europe. People could walk to and from the
  continent.
• Hunters-gatherers. Lived in caves. No cave art
• The only evidence stone tools (flint axes)

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Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic)8300 3500 BC

• Climate warmer, glaciers retreated. Britain is an
  island.
• Hunters-gatherers started to settle for longer
  periods in Britain.
• Communities began to hunt in localised areas
• Regional trends

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New Stone Age (Neolithic)3500-2500BC

• Introduction of agriculture (cultivation of crops
  and domestication of animals)
• Permanent settlement
• Trade
• Clearance of forests
• Depended on communal effort
• Mines (to get flint)
• A cult of the dead communal burials

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Bronze Age2500-700 BC

• Increased inequality between the rich and the
  poor
• Communal burials replaced with individual graves
• Beaker People
• Chiefdoms and ornaments of power
• Farming (horse-riding equipment. Wheel?)

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Stone Circles

• Over 900 in the British Isles
• The original purpose is unclear
• Hypotheses
• For ceremonies
• As trading places
• As ancient observatories
• Location the Lake District, the Lands End and
  Wiltshire Downs (Avebury, Silbury Hill and
  Stonehenge)

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Stonehenge
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