EARLY ENGLAND

From Hunter-gatherers to the Romans

The evolution of the British Isles

The geological stages of the formation of the island

(reflected in the present landscape)

2700 mln. years ago

Volcanic eruptions –

Rocks in the Scottish Highlands

570mln. years ago-

seas covered the south of Britain

Later –

alternation of floods and drying outs (growing forests, swamps)—

rottening of vegetation—peat formed and compressed—

coal in S.Wales, Yorkshire, Kent, N.England

280-200 mln. years ago –

Britain was a desert

150 mln. Years ago –

plants and animals appeared again

70 mln. Years ago

seas at the highest level – Britain was blanketed by the fragments

of algae –CHALK

(up to 500 m thick in some places – white cliffs of the s. coast)

2,5 mln. years ago –succession of ice ages (~12)

Average temp. – 6-9 C(As far as to London)

Signs of erosion in the Lake District, Snowdonia, Scottish

Highlands

MAN APPEARED

Old Stone Age (Paleolithic)70,000-8000 BC

• Alternation of warm and ice-age conditions• For most Britain is glaciated• Sea level is low. Land-bridges between

England and Europe. People could walk to and from the continent.

• Hunters-gatherers. Lived in caves. No cave art

• The only evidence – stone tools (flint axes)

Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic)8300 – 3500 BC

• Climate warmer, glaciers retreated. Britain is an island.

• Hunters-gatherers started to settle for longer periods in Britain.

• Communities began to hunt in localised areas

• Regional trends

New Stone Age (Neolithic)3500-2500BC

• Introduction of agriculture (cultivation of crops and domestication of animals) – – Permanent settlement– Trade– Clearance of forests

• Depended on communal effort• Mines (to get flint)• A cult of the dead – communal burials

Bronze Age2500-700 BC

• Increased inequality between the rich and the poor

• Communal burials replaced with individual graves

• “Beaker People”

• Chiefdoms and ornaments of power

• Farming (horse-riding equipment. Wheel?)

Stone Circles

• Over 900 in the British Isles• The original purpose is unclear• Hypotheses:

– For ceremonies

– As trading places

– As ancient observatories

• Location : the Lake District, the Land’s End and Wiltshire Downs (Avebury, Silbury Hill and Stonehenge)