Stonehenge, erected in several stages from c.

3000-1500BC

The time from Britain's first inhabitation until the Last Glacial Maximum is known as the Old Stone
Age, or Palaeolithic era. Archaeological evidence indicates that what was to become England was
colonised by humans long before the rest of the British Isles because of its more hospitable
climate between and during the various glacial periods of the distant past. This earliest evidence,
from Happisburgh in Norfolk, includes the oldest hominid footprints found outside Africa, and
points to dates of more than 800,000 RCYBP.[1] These earliest inhabitants were hunter-gatherers.
Low sea-levels meant that Britain was attached to the continent for much of this earliest period of
history, and varying temperatures over tens of thousands of years meant that it was not always
inhabited.[7]
England has been continually inhabited since the last Ice Age ended around 9000 BC, the
beginning of the Middle Stone Age, or Mesolithic era. Rising sea-levels cut off Britain from the
continent for the last time around 6500 BC. The population by then was exclusively anatomically
modern humans, and the evidence suggests that their societies were increasingly complex and
they were manipulating their environment and prey in new ways, possibly selective burning of then
omnipresent woodland to create clearings for herds to gather and then hunt them. Hunting was
mainly done with simple projectile weapons such as javelin and possibly sling. Bow and arrow was
known in Western Europe since least 9000 BC. The climate continued to warm and the population
probably rose.[8]
The New Stone Age, or Neolithic era, began with the introduction of farming, ultimately from the
Middle East, around 4000 BC. It is not known whether this was caused by a substantial folk
movement or native adoption of foreign practices or both. People began to lead a more settled
lifestyle. Monumental collective tombs were built for the dead in the form of chambered cairns and
long barrows. Towards the end of the period, other kinds of monumental stone alignments begin to
appear, such as Stonehenge; their cosmic alignments show a preoccupation with the sky and
planets. Flint technology produced a number of highly artistic pieces as well as purely pragmatic.
More extensive woodland clearance was done for fields and pastures. The Sweet Track in
the Somerset Levels is one of the oldest timber trackways known in Northern Europe and among
the oldest roads in the world, dated by dendrochronology to the winter of 3807–3806 BC; it too is
thought to have been a primarily religious structure. [7] Archaeological evidence from North
Yorkshire indicates that salt was being manufactured there in the Neolithic. [9]

LATER PREHISTORY [EDIT ]

View of the ramparts of the developed hillfort of Maiden Castle, Dorset, as they look today

The Bronze Age began around 2500 BC with the appearance of bronze objects. This coincides
with the appearance of the characteristic Beaker culture, which occurred primarily by folk
movement. The Bronze Age saw a shift of emphasis from the communal to the individual, and the
rise of increasingly powerful elites whose power came from their prowess as hunters and warriors
and their controlling the flow of precious resources to manipulate tin and copper into high-status
bronze objects such as swords and axes. Settlement became increasingly permanent and
intensive. Towards the end of the Bronze Age, many examples of very fine metalwork began to be
deposited in rivers, presumably for ritual reasons and perhaps reflecting a progressive change in