1. PREHISTORIC BRITAIN 1 250.000 BC: First inhabitants
BC: ancestors of the modern British
BC: 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

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. 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.

6. 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;

7. The chalkland people
after 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).

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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;

11. 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

12. 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;

13. 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