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Unit 1: British Earliest Times

1. INTRODUCTION. EARLY HUMANS

During warm periods, humans and animals entered Britain, but they migrated when colder times arrived.
Britain became an island 7000 years ago due to the change of the sea level. As temperatures raised, Britain
became continuously occupied. Britain’s inhabitants were hunter-gatherers. At first, meat was important, but
then communities evolved, starting to make use of local resources (the ones living on the shore became reliant
on seafood).
The earliest identifiable inhabitant of Britain was the Homo Heldelbergensis (500,000 years ago). Homo
Heidelbergensis were followed by Homo Nearderthalensis. Physically modern humans, Homo Sapiens, arrived
from Eurasia 40,000 years ago.

2. FROM THE PALAEOLITHIC TO THE NEOLITHIC AGE

The Palaeolithic (400,000 to 10,000 BC)
The Palaeolithic starts with the first humans on Earth and ends with the introduction of agriculture
(Mesolithic, in 10,000 BC). The Palaeolithic is characterised by the use of stone tools (they also used wood and
bone tools). The Palaeolithic is divided into three periods:
• The Lower Palaeolithic (2,500,000 to 120,000 years ago): From the first use of stone tools.
• The Middle Palaeolithic (300,000 to 30,000 years ago). It is the period of the Homo Neanderthalensis.
Modern humans emerged circa 100,000 years ago.
• Stone tool manufacturing developed into a more sophisticated toolmaking technique called the
prepared-core technique (it allowed the creation of more consistent flakes).
• The food source was hunting, but shellfish started to be exploited. Smoking and drying to
preserve food started.
• Artistic expression (evidence of purposeful burials, body paint and rock art) appeared for the
first time.
• The Upper Palaeolithic (40,000 to 10,000 years ago). Just before the advent of agriculture.

The Neanderthals (till 40,000 BC)

The Neanderthals evolved from human species such as the Homo Heldelbergensis. The had Europe for
themselves until 40,000 years ago (they began to be replaced by Homo Sapiens).
The only site in Britain where Neanderthal remains were fund was Pontnewydd Cave (in Wales). No remains of
the Neanderthals have been found either in Ireland or in Scotland (it does not mean that they did not live
there).
The Neaderthals were extinct about 28,000 years ago.
During the Upper Palaeolithic the Homo Sapiens appeared (they were migrants from the Middle East). They
were more sophisticated culturally: spear shafts, cave paintings, bone flutes, elaborated human burials…

Britain’s Firts Modern Humans (31,000 to 13,000 BC)

The earliest evidence of moder Homo Sapiens in Britain is a jaw fragment from Kent’s Cavern (Devon, of
31,000 years ago). As the temperature fluctuated, so did population. 13,000 years ago, Britain had the same
temperature than nowadays, but 11,000 years ago it was much colder (it led to a period of human
abandonment of the territory).

The Mesolithic(10,000 to 5,500 BC)

The beginning of the Mesolithic was conditioned by a rapid climatic warming. Farming was introduced in
Britain. The temperature increase established the shorelines of Britain more or less as they are today.
Certain evidence of human activity is recorded for the first time in Scotland and Ireland.
During late Mesolithic, sedentarism increased in Europe, and planned massive cemeteries were found. But in
Britain it was more common to find temporary settlements, and burials were of single individuals (but for
Aveline’s Hole, in the Mendips, where a cemetery for 70 people were found).

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The Neolithic (4,000 to 2,500 BC)
In the Neolithic, humans took up agriculture as a way of life, and then stopped being nomadic hunter-
gatherers. Neolithic farmers settled in stable communities, cleared land, planted wheat and barley, and raised
herds of domesticated sheep, cattle and pigs.
The Neolithic settlers originally lived in rectangular log cabins. Communities were small, but they worked as a
group if needed (for example, to build communal graves, causewayed camps…).
Though they were farmers, every 10 to 20 years they had to move on because the lands they worked on
reached the point where it could no longer support crops. After another 10 to 20 years, they used to go back
to the first settlement, as the soil could have time to regenerate.
They used to wear simple hide garments, and ornamentation consisted simply of animal teeth and bone
necklaces.
Their life span was of just 35 years for men and 30 for women.

Monuments to the Dead in Britain and Ireland: burial monuments

There were two main types:
• Long mounds or cairns: Made of earth or stone. The body of an important person, after decomposing
outside the monument, was put inside it. The best long mounds can be found in Orkney and Wessex. They
were not just burial places (they could be used for social or religious ceremonies).
• Passage graves. They can be found in the North of Irish Boyne ritual landscape.

Neolithic architecture, ceremonial or ritual centres and landscapes

Houses became increasingly solid and permanent. They were rectangular (though by 300 BC roundhouses
became more common). The formation of small villages happened during the Later Neolithic.
About 4000 BC communal burial began to be practised. In the Earlier Neolithic communities buried their dead
in chambered tombs or long barrows. About 3000 BC passage graves developed.
• Long barrows: They are communal tombs and centres of religious activity. There are two types: earthen
long barrows (made entirely of earth) and megalithic or chambered long barrows (made with a chamber of
large stones). The dead were put in the barrows after all the flesh had been removed. Only the bones of
a very selected few were put in the barrows (nothing is known about what they used to do with the
corpses of the rest of the population). The most important barrows in Britain are in Oxfordshire,
Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
• Passage graves: They were more modern long barrows that consisted of a central chamber reached by a
narrow and low passage (all made of stones). The best example is in Gwynedd.
By 3500 BC, the first ceremonial centres appeared:
• Causewayed enclosures: Most causewayed enclosures are found in lowland England. They consist of a series
from 1 to 4 concentric rings of banks and ditches enclosing an area up to 9 hectares. The ditches are
bridged by ramps of earth, or causeways, in several places (often with gaps in the banks to form obvious
places of entry). They might have been used as trading centres, churches, feasting areas, ceremonial
places… The best preserved causeway is Windmill Hill (in Wiltshire).
• Carsus (3300 BC): They were linear monuments: elongated rectangular earth-banked enclosures. They
must have been used for processions.
• Stone circles and hedges (3300 to 1200 BC): Stone circles were standing stones (often in the form of a
circle or oval). The most famous is Stonehenge (in Wiltshire). They might have been multi-purpose tribal
gathering places (for rituals related to the seasons and the fertility of the earth). Henges were a simple
bank and ditch enclosing an area of land. The bank was outside the ditch. They were used as religious and
ceremonial gathering places. Not all henges had stone circles within them.

3. THE BRONZE AGE (2,400 TO 700 BC)

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Introduction
About 2,500 BC migrants settled in Britain. They were called the Beaker People (due to the shape of the
pottery vessels found in their round barrow graves). They were farmers and archers. They were also the first
metal smiths in Britain (working first in copper and gold, and then in bronze).
The ritual monuments created during the Neolithic continued in use until the early centuries of the second
millennium, then the old ancestral tombs ceased to be used and even part of them were blocked.
In 2,400 BC single burial was adopted using barrow mounds. Barrow mounds were tumuli that were used as
individual burial places for important people. Not all barrows contain a burial (they could have been used as
well as territory markers). The best examples of barrow mounds can be found in Dorset and Wiltshire. The
trajectory of the sun was really important for the disposition of barrows.
Some communities had privileges due to geographical disposition: they could provide the rest of communities
with materials such as: gold (from Wicklow Mountains of Ireland), copper (from mount Gabriel), tin (from
Cornwall), jet (from Yorkshire)…
In the Bronze Age, faience (the first artificial material) appeared: it was a fusion of sand and mineral at a
very high temperature (it became a bright blue glassy substance used to make beads).
Round houses were preferred to rectangular houses.
Towards the end of the Bronze Age the climate became colder, so getting food to survive became more
difficult (warfare and banditry erupted).

Stonehenge
There was a henge at the Stonehenge site around 2800 BC. It consisted of a ditch and a bank enclosing an
open space. Inside the henge a ring of 56 holes were dug (Aubrey Holes). About 2200 BC, the Beaker People
built a double ring of stones inside the henge, a process that lasted for a hundred years.
The ring of stones was torn down, and a new circle was built (it formed an horseshoe surrounded by a circle).
This is the construction we know nowadays.
It was a multipurpose ceremonial centre, relating to religion, burials, fertility, death and rebirth.

Settlements and Industry

From about 1500 BC communities began to close the land, and families established their houses within small
clusters of enclosed land.
Communities started nurturing the land, as the growth of cereals gained importance. Grain storage pits (silos)
would also be built into the rock. These aspects allowed communities to establish permanently, and the first
bronze smiths appeared.
The first Hill Forts appeared in the late Bronze Age, and were typical of the Iron Age.

4. THE IRON AGE (700 – 55 BC)

Introduction
In this age, the climate became considerably wetter. The use of iron for making tools and weapons was
common.
Extensive field systems called Celtic fields were set out. Settlements became more permanent and focused on
better exploitation of the land. Long ditches were dug to indicate territorial borders. Britain and Ireland
used dialects of the Celtic language.
The sea provided the way of contact between England, Ireland and the rest of Europe. Phoenician traders
began to visit Great Britain in search for minerals, bringing goods from the Mediterranean. A large folk
migration from central Europe westwards took place during the Iron Age. The population in Britain increased.

Hill-Fort Defences: their function

Hill forts were constructed. They are hilltop enclosures that worked as defensive structures (they enclosed
high places with rings of ditches and banks). They used to have wooden or stone walls that acted as barriers.
The best example is Maiden Castle (in Dorset). They were also used for food storage, as centres for markets
and social contact, as places to keep domesticated animals, as defended areas that supported permanent
tribal settlement, as farmasteads…
In the Iron Age, brooches (defensive structures) were constructed in northern Scotland.

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Trade and art

These products were imported: warrior equipment (swords, horses…), bronze buckets, razors, bracelets, wine..
These products were exported: British weaponry, slaves, hunting dogs, wool, tin, corn…
Coins started to be developed for trade. At first they were mere crude copies of Greek and Roman coins. The
British tribal kings adopted the continental habit of putting their names on the coins they have minted.
In Britain and Ireland, a balanced agricultural economy was well established. Hunting was not widely practised.
Coastal communities made good use of resources of shellfish.
Communities maintained networks of contact for the distribution and acquisition of goods.

The end of the Iron Age in Britain

It ended with the Roman invasion, though in certain areas where Roman influence and rule was weak or even
non-existent, Iron Age beliefs and practices continued for centuries.