Lecture 1

Prehistoric Britain. Celtic and Roman Britain

Prehistoric Britain. Man lived in what is now called the British Isles (see map 1) long before it
broke away from the continent of Europe after the end of the last Ice Age.
Map 1 ( UK)
The first evidence of human life is a few stone tools dating from the Paleolithic period about 250
000 BC. With the end of the Ice Age the climate on the Isles became warmer so time came for a
change of the lifestyle. This change is known as the Neolithic revolution and was brought about
by migrants from the Mediterranean, called the Iberians, around 3000 BC. Instead of hunting
and food gathering they could grow corn crops and keep domestic animals.
During the Bronze Age ( after about 2000 BC) new groups of people arrived in south-east Britain
from Europe. This race is known as the Beaker people because of the pottery found in their
graves (see picture 1). The dominating type of the settlement now was a fortified hill-fort (see
picture 2) an enclosure often on top of a hill.
Picture 1 (a beaker)
Picture 2 (a hill-fort)
The BC people left behind the village of Scara Brae, communal burial places, barrows (see
picture 3), and a number of henges, of which the most famous is the Stonehenge (see picture 4).
Picture 3 (a barrow)
Picture 4 (Stonehenge)
*Stonehenge was built on Salisbury Plain some time between 3050 and 2300 BC. It is one of the
most famous and mysterious archeological sites in the world. One of its mysteries is how it was
ever built at all with the technology of the time (the stones come from over 200 miles away in
Whales). Another is its purpose. It appears to function as a kind of astronomical clock and we
know it was used by the Druids for ceremonies marking the passing of the seasons.
Celtic Britain. The Celts of eastern Europe first arrived in Britain about 750 BC and brought
what is known as the Iron Age they knew the secret of mining iron ore and work this metal to
produce stronger weapons and tools. They could also travel faster in iron-wheeled chariots drawn
by horses. The social pattern of the Celts was military aristocracy, they lived in tribes which were
sometimes at war with each other, sometimes trading peacefully. The fill-fort remained the center
for local groups. The insiders of these hill-forts were filled with houses, and they became the
simple economic capitals and small towns of the different tribal areas into which Britain was
divided. The Celts traded with Ireland and continental Europe. The priests, known as Druids,
seem to have been particularly important members of the ruling class. We owe our first written
description of the British Celts to Julius Caesar who came with his first information-gathering
expedition in 55 BC. Despite the apparently lower form of civilization in Britain, neither of
Caesars two expeditions (in 55 BC and 54 BC) was particularly successful.
Roman Britain. It was only in 43 AD, under Emperor Claudius, that the subduing of Britain
began in earnest. Although the invasion met fierce resistance from some of the British tribes,
their inability to cooperate left them no chances against the well-organized enemy. By the end of

the first century AD Britain had been completely integrated into the empire as the province
Britannia.
In 60 AD the Romans met with the greatest uprising of Celtic tribes led by Queen Boudicca of
the Iceni. The rebels destroyed the Roman capital Colchester and the important trading center
Londinium before they we stopped in pitched battle by the legions.
In subsequent years, successful campaigns by a series of Roman governors brought most of the
island under imperial control once again. Many of the Celts started to take pride in being Roman
citizens and wearing the Roman toga. In the south-west the country became very similar to the
rest of the Roman Empire, with Latin as the official written and spoken language. One of the
greatest achievements of the Roman Empire was its system of roads. It was agreed in the empire
that to hold Scotland (or Caledonia as it was called by the Romans) was impossible, and
Emperor Hadrian decided to fortify the frontier with an immense defensive wall, which ran all
across the country.
By the fifth century the Roman civilization required protection from a new power came to
dominate most of the continent: the migrating Germanic tribes. This threat made Rome pull more
and more soldiers out of Britain and bring them home to defend the capital, leaving the Britons
at the mercy of their own enemies: the Picts from Scotland, the Scots from Hibernia (Ireland),
and the Saxons from across the North Sea northern Germany and Denmark. In 409 the last
Roman soldiers left Britain and a year later, in 410, Rome fell to the Goths leaving Britain
completely out of its sphere of interest. The final mistake of the Britons was relying on Saxon
mercenaries for the defense against the Picts, where Roman legions had previously been used.
Such was the devastating power of the later invasions that the Roman influence on the British
culture was almost completely wiped out. Apart from the roads, city foundations and some other
material evidence, the evidence of the four-century long Roman occupation has remained almost
exclusively in the language.