1. Introduction to Britain and Its Earliest People

I. Geographical Characteristics

        - see map

II. Early People of Britain

    A. Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)

            1) Swanscombe Man (c. 200,000 B.C.E.)

                - an early human creature

            2) Creswell Crags (c. 40,000 B.C.E.)

                - first homo sapiens

                - manufactured flint tools

                - artistic production

    B. Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age)

                - Horsham (c. 8,300 B.C.E.)

                    - hunters

                    - earliest dwelling found in Britain

    C. Neolithic Age (New Stone Age)

            1) Skara Brae

                - village found in the Orkney Islands

            2) Windmill Hill, Avebury

                - pastoral and nomadic people

                - raised cattle, cultivated wheat and barley, produced pottery

                - mined flint, used flint tools

                - dwellings initially built in pits, later above ground

                - long barrows erected and used as burial mounds

            3) Cotswolds

                - also built elaborate barrows

            4) The Beaker People

                - came to Britain about 3,000 B.C.E.

                - brought metallurgy to Ireland where copper was available

                - by 2,000 B.C.E. developed bronze

                - pastoral and agricultural people

                - raised flax, made linen and woolens, used buttons

                - contributed to the later constructions of Stonehenge

    D. Late Bronze Age (c. 1100 B.C.E.)

            - Beaker Folk and Wessex warrior elite merged to form:

                1) Food Vessel Culture > north of the Thames

                2) Urn Culture > in the south

                    - raised livestock

                    - grew wheat and barley

                    - made linen and woolen cloth

                    - lived in stone huts

            3) Deverel-Rimbury (c. 1400 B.C.E.)

                    - due to depleted soil in the Uplands, a strong focus was given to

                        developing the south

                    - agricultural improvements included the planting of a winter crop

                    - advances in metallurgy > stone weapons and tools were repleced

                        by metal implements

    E. Iron Age (600 B.C.E.)

            1) Celtic Britain

                - between the 7th and 1st centuries B.C.E. Celtic speaking people

                    migrated to Britain

                - by the 3rd century B.C.E. most of the people of Britain spoke Celtic

                - iron was used in making weapons, tools, chariot wheels, etc.

            2) Trade

                - initially iron bars were used as currency

                - by the 3rd century B.C.E. coins were minted and circulated

            3) Hillforts (1500-150 B.C.E.)

                - primarily for defense, but also religious centers, meeting places,

                    livestock enclosures

                - centers of authority for tribal warrior elites

                - abandoned with the establishment of kingdoms

            4) Religion

                - Druids > priests who were learned men responsible for religious

                    practice, justice, and maintaining the calendar

                - belief in an immortal soul and spirits that inhabited the natural world

                - human sacrifice practiced

            5) Art

                - developed distinctive flowing curve patterns used as decorations;

                    these patterns later became more geometric and rigid

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