PREHISTORIC BRITAIN 1 250.000 BC: First inhabitants 50.000 BC: ancestors of the modern British 10.000 -5.000BC: wanderer-hunter culture 3.000 BC:Neolithic (New Stone Age ) people or Iberians 2.400 BC : the Beaker people 1.300 BC the henge civilisation becomes less important 700 BC: the Celts

First evidence: Two kinds of inhabitants: 1) The earlier group 2) The later group 1 st group made tools from flakes of flint; 2 nd group made tools from a central core of flint

50.000 BC A new type of human being arrived ( they are the ancestors of the modern British) -looked similar, but were smaller, with a life span of only 30 years

10.000-5.000 BC Small groups of hunters, fishers and gatherers peopled Britain -few had settled homes; -followed deer; -warm climate was a disaster.

3.000 BC Neolithic people crossed the narrow sea from Europe and arrived in Britain (either from the Iberian peninsula or the North African coast) - settled homes; kept animals; made pottery; grew corn crops.

The Iberian people (the chalkland people) - small, dark, long-headed; settled in the western parts of Britain and Ireland, from Cornwall at the southwest end of Britain all the way to the far north; the forefathers of dark-haired inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall; built great “ barrows” or burial mounds (made of earth or stone) which are found on the chalk uplands of south Britain;

The chalkland people after 3.000 BC started building great cicles of earth banks and diches; inside: wooden buildings or stone circles; were called “henges”; were centres of religious, political economic power; Stonehenge (was built over a period of more than a thousand years).

2.400 BC: the Beaker people New groups of people arrived from Europe: became leaders of British society; made pottery beakers; first individual graves; brought the skills to make bronze tools; Stonehenge remained the most important centre and the Beaker people added a new circle of 30 stone columns connected by stone lintels

1.300 BC about this time the henge civilisation becomes less important; it is overtaken by a new form of society in southern England: settled farming class; family villages appeared; fortified enclosures appeared; hill-forts replaced henges as the centres of local power

700 BC: the Celts A new group of tall, fair or redhaired, blue-eyed people arrived; Came from central Europe or from southern Russia; were technically advanced: work with iron; drew the older inhabitants westwards into Wales, Scotland, Ireland; controlled all the lowland areas;

the Celts Importance of the Celts: -ancestors of people in Highland Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall; -the Iberian people took on the Celtic culture; -Celtic languages are spoken today

the Celts were organized in tribes; continued the same kind of agriculture; the use of iron technology made it possible to farm heavier soils; continued to use and built hill-forts: filled with houses inside, which became smaller towns of the different tribal areas into which Britain was divided;

the Celts Traded across tribal borders by rivers and sea; Used iron bars as money; Were ruled over by a warrior class; Druids or priests were important members; Women had more independence