BRITAIN'S PREHISTORY

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BRITAIN'S PREHISTORY
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THE EARLIEST TIMES

• Britain has not always been an island.
• It became an island after the end of the last ice
  age, about 8000 years ago

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THE EARLIEST PEOPLE

• The people living in Britain were descendants of
  the first homo sapiens who arrived in Europe
  30000 40000 years ago
• They lived by fishing, hunting and collecting
  fruit, nuts, berries, etc.

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NEOLITHIC INTRODUCTION OF FARMING

• The introduction of farming, when people learned
  how to produce food, is considered one of the
  biggest changes in human history
• Farming started to develop in Britain between
  5000BC and 4500 BC

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NEOLITHIC INTRODUCTION OF FARMING

• The introduction of farming into Britain is
  probably the result of migration of people from
  the continent.
• It took about 2000 years to spread across the
  island
• When they produced food, they needed a place to
  store it, so they stopped moving around the
  country every season and settled down.

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EARLY SETTLEMENTS

• From about 3800 BC people started to settle down
  and we find the first large communal tombs
  (called barrows or mounds)

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EARLY SETTLEMENTS

• There are also ceremonial monuments, where people
  from a particular region gathered together.
• Some of these monuments, called henges, were
  built according to the position of the sun during
  the winter or summer solstice.
• The most famous of these monuments is Stonehenge,
  developed about 3000 BC

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STONEHENGE

• Stonehenge is a circular arrangement of standing
  stones built in prehistoric times and located
  near Salisbury
• The stones were put in place in three main phases
  c. 3100c. 1550 BC.
• There are many theories about the reason for the
  building of Stonehenge but none has been proved.
• People generally believe that it was a place of
  worship and ritual and there seems to be some
  connection with the summer solstice

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STONEHENGE
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STONEHENGE
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STONEHENGE
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BRONZE AGE

• About 2500 BC the Bronze Age starts.
• Henges continue in use, but communal tombs are
  replaced by individual ones. Important men and
  women were buried separately with objects like
  metal daggers or axes and pieces of pottery
  (beakers)

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THE BEAKER PEOPLE

• The Beaker people took barley to Britain.
• They also took skills to make bronze utensils

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BRONZE AGE

• At this time people lived in settlements
  consisting of round houses grouped together
• Metalwork improves.
• The first field systems are developed in Britain
  about 1500-1250 BC

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LATE BRONZE AGE

• About 1250-800 BC the field systems continued in
  use.
• They constructed the first hillforts, which were
  used for trade and religious activities.

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THE IRON AGE (800 BC)

• The Celts probably came from Central Europe and
  were technically advanced.
• They could work with iron, and could make better
  weapons than the people who used bronze.
• They took new crops (new varieties of barley and
  wheat), peas, beans.
• They used new farming techniques (iron plough).
• As a consequence, the population grew.

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CELTIC HILLFORTS

• Celts lived in round houses and they built hill
  forts that they used for trade and religious
  activities

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CELTIC ROUND HOUSES
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CELTIC HILL FORTS
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CELTIC LIFE

• The Celts didn't leave books behind because they
  didn't read and write
• But the Greeks and Romans wrote about the Iron
  Age Celts. They tell us that the Celts lived in
  tribes, they wore gold and loved to fight and
  drink wine. They also wrote about the power of
  the Celts' priests, who were called druids.
• The druids knew how to keep their gods happy -
  they sacrificed food, precious objects, and even
  people to their gods and goddesses.

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CELTIC LIFE

• Archaeologists have found lots of Celtic
  jewellery
• The Celts used bronze and gold as well as iron.
  The heads of the tribe would wear jewellery to
  show how important they were.
• They also needed sharp objects like spears, as
  well as shields, to defend themselves from enemy
  attack

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CELTIC LIFE

• The Romans say that the Celts were fierce
  warriors.
• The farmers had to be ready to fight whenever the
  head of the tribe called on them.
• The Celts often fought naked - and it's believed
  that women would fight as well.
• Their main weapons were the sword and spear, and
  they sometimes fought in horse-drawn war
  chariots.
• Even though the Celts were proud, brave and
  skilled fighters, they were rather undisciplined.
  They could not fight against the Romans' order
  and power. And, of course, in the end they were
  defeated by the Romans.

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RELIGION AND BELIEF

• Archaeologists believe that the Iron Age Celts
  had many gods and goddesses and that the Celts
  worshipped their gods through sacrifice, giving
  them valuable objects to keep them happy.
• But material treasures weren't the only
  sacrifices - the Iron Age Celts 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
  moon, the sun and the stars were especially
  important - the Celts thought that there were
  supernatural forces in every aspect of the
  natural world.

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RELIGION AND BELIEF THE DRUIDS

• The druids were the Celts' priests, responsible
  for all sorts of religious ceremonies.
• They were educated and powerful members of the
  tribe
• The Druids instructed young men, supervised
  sacrifices, judged fights, and decreed penalties
  they didnt go to war and paid no tribute.
• The Druids were suppressed by the Romans but
  survived as poets, historians, and judges.

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THE END OF THE CELTIC AGE

• By 450 BC hill forts were abandoned or
  transformed into primitive towns
• About 200 BC Roman influence began to extend into
  Western Europe and Britain.
• When the Romans conquered Gaul, the British Celts
  helped the Celts of Gaul. The Romans invaded
  Britain so that they could use British food for
  the Roman army in Gaul.
• In AD 43 the Romans conquered England. They could
  never conquer Scotland.

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HADRIANS WALL