- Covering 70,000BCE to about 100BCE
- 70,000BCE start of the last ice age, temperature dropped by less than 10oF
- There were Woolly Mammoths and Giant Deer in Britannia
- 40,000BCE neanderthals started arriving to Britannia
- 30,000BCE modern humans started arriving to Britannia
- 22,000BCE A “cold snap”. Britannia became a treeless tundra for 1,000s of years.
- Everything went south.
- Things that did stay adapted to the dropping temperature.
- Sea level was about 417 feet lower than it is today
- Britannia was connected to both the continent and Ireland
Doggerland was the connecting area of land that connected britannia to the continent that, by around 6,500BCE, was completely underwater:
14,000BCE
- People started arriving back to Britannia as the temperatures began to rise again. The came from southern France and Spain.
12,000BCE
- End of the last Ice Age.
- Ireland is split off from Britannia completely.
- Britannia still just about connected to continent by a land bridge
- Woodlands began coming back
- Humans begin using small flint tools
- Many animals dying out due to rising temperatures. That, and the humans hunting them.
7,150BCE
- Cheddar Man
- Man of about 21 years old
- From the Cheddar Region
- Died due to a blow on the head
- Marks on his skeleton due to bones being scraped clean:
- This is thought to be either burial rituals (secondary burial)
- Or possibly cannibalism
- He is related to at least two residents of modern-day Cheddar
- Also related to about 11% of modern European population
- The land from Britannia to continent becoming marshy.
6,500BCE
- Doggerland now completely sank into the channel
- Britannia is separated from the continent.
4,000BCE
- Britannia hits the Neolithic Age (aka New Stone Age)
- Britannia Population of about 10,000
2,500BCE
- Stonehenge was built.
1,000BCE
- Hill forts begin popping up across country.
- Britannia now in Bronze age, whilst the rest of Europe was in the Iron Age.
700BCE
- Iron begins being introduced into Britannia.
- There was a slow switch over to Iron, probably sped up by warring tribes wanting the upper hand in battle.
500-400BCE
- Celts begin arriving from France and Northern Spain
- At least 2 groups of Celts:
- Goidelic (which became Gaelic) – Settled in Ireland around 350BCE
- Brythonic (which became Welsh, Cornish and Briton)
- Celts as a whole came from the Hellstat Territory in central Europe around 6th Century BCE
- Britannia was actually known of Albion, from the Latin word meaning white.
325BCE
- Greek navigator Pytheas arrived on shores of Britannia
- Had a way of navigating and mapping the island by putting a stick in the ground and noting it’s shadow at various times of the day.
- The name Britannia came from him calling the people he found “Pretani”, meaning “The Painted People” – This made “Pretannike” – The land of the painted people. In Latin P’s often substituted to B’s and so became Britannia.
- Distinct cultural groups
- Coastal people — often traders.
- Kent was most advanced
- Inland people — often hunters and scavengers.
- Coastal people — often traders.
- The way the land was meant that many communities were small in size.
200BCE
- Trade is increased
- Contact with Greece emerges due to the widely available Greek coins.
- Major exports from Britannia were thought to be Tin, Copper and Hunting Dogs.
100BCE
- Gallo Belgic coins start appearing.
- Believed to be due to people accepting payments from military services.
- Some Britons were mercenary fighters for hire.
- “Oppidum” sites increasing — this is according to Caeser.
- Large walled towns often in thickly wooded areas, protected by ditches.
- Britannia was largely an agricultural economy.
- Population now around the 1,000,000 area.
- They spoke a Celtic language
- The “Traditional English countryside” pretty much had its beginnings at this point.
- The Religion of the time was Druidism.
- Discovery of Lindow Man in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire
- Possibly struck on the head (but not killed)
- Then strangled (but not killed)
- Then his throat cut.
- Mistletoe pollen found in his stomach.
- A possible back up for the claim by Romans that the Druids did human sacrifice.