UNIT 1
EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS
1. THE PALEOLITHIC
About 1.000.000 years ago
Four phases of intense cold separated by three warmer periods
During three first Ice Ages Britain was inhabitable
Last glaciation: Modern Man lived at Kent´s Cavern (near Torquay)
Last Ice Age: Britain was still joined to Europe and hunter nomads romaed southern England
This period overlaps with the Pleistocene Ice Ages which began 1.6 millions years ago.
Great climatic fluctuation:
warmer stages: ice retreated northwards
first and third warmer periods: climate was hotter than today
1.1 The Neanderthals
Evolve from the archaic human species that were already living there
They lived in isolated groups
Considered the great Ice Age´s survivors
Wales: only place with Neanderthal human traits
England and Wales: remains of typical Middle Paleolithic flake tools
They inhabit Europe until about 40.000 years ago when they were replaced by new settlers: modern Homo
Sapiens
Homo Sapiens:
- new Upper Paleolithic technology with a wide range of tool types (flint blades [cuchillas de silex], spearshafts
[arpones])
- due to the similarities in stone working techniques suggest they were migrants form the Middle East
- tools carved out of antler, ivory and bone
1.2 The first settlers of Britain and Ireland
Ice Age: sea level were at times over 100 m lower than today and Britain linked to Europe so first inhabitants
arrive on foot
500.000 years ago: earliest evidence of human
31.000 years ago: modern humans first reached Britain
13.000 years ago (towards the last Ice Age): became widespread
5.000 BC: Sea levels rised and cut off Britain and Ireland from Europe
250.000 years ago: first known inhabitant lived in the valley where the Kent town of Swanscombe now stands.
Swanscombre man:
- His tribe coexisted with prehistoric animals that meant meat and danger
- Armed only with wooden spears [lanza] and flint axes [hachas de silex] they butchered the animal on the
spot
- Physical appearance:
- massive jaw
- skull bones not very different from men today
- same brain size
- Life:
- precarious
- disease
- hunting accidents
- experts not sure if they could make fire
- they hunt in group
- they used animal´s skin
- high degree of artistic skills
- they had a reverence for the dead and almost certainly believed in life after death
2.THE MESOLITHIC
From 10.000 to 5.500 BC
Warmer condition > rise of the sea level > actual shorelines of Britain
Evidences of human activity in Scotland and Ireland
Ireland: colonizers arrived by boat
Mesolithic people:
Hunter-gatherers
Tools made of stone
the moved up and down the main rivers on a seasonal basis
on later Mesolithic there was a tendency to settle
It appeared:
massive shell middens
food storage pits
territorial boundaries
planned cemeteries
3. THE NEOLITHIC
By 3.000 BC
Arrival of the first farmers in Britain, by boat:
with seeds: barley, wheat [cebada y trigo] and animals
new type of stone tools (sickles [hoz])
they were semi-nomadic because of the animals and the need of fresh grazing-land
primitive tools
containers to store grain and dishes (decorated since 3.300 BC)
3.1 Neolithic Architecture
3.000 – 2.500 BC:
- the building of great hill-top camps as meeting places
- collective tombs for powerful men
- huge earthwork enclosures
- henges that acted as religious centres, used over 500 years
Building of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, the largest manmade structure in prehistoric Europe:
- earth and layers of chalk blocks piled up to a height of 130 ft.
Building of stone circles maybe used for a measurement of time or phases of the moon
3.2 Ritual monuments in Britain and Ireland
Southern Britain: Windmill Hill in Wiltshire and Hembury in Devon: large earthwork enclosures with a series of
ditches dug arround them.
not inhabited all the year round, may have served as tribal gathering places
Social structure began to emerge: top > prominent men and their families
Monuments were built in the heart of inhabited zones or on the margins of settle land
3.2.1 Stonehenge
- 2.800 BC -
Stands on the southern part of Salisbury Plain. It´s the focal point of the densest concentration of Neolithic and
Bronze Age monuments anywhere in Britain.
Unique beause of:
the height of its stones
the precision of their plan
the refinement of their shaping and jointing
the stone lintels on top of the uprights
Four main periods in the building and use of Stonehenge:
Stonehenge I:
2.800 BC
Consisted of a circular earthwork enclosure surrounded by a bank with a ditch [zanja] outside it and
another smaller bank outside the ditch
In a board entrance-gap on the north-east side stood a pair of stones and beyond a row of large wooden
posts wich perhaps supported timber lintels to form a triple gateway
Inside the bank there was a ring of 56 pits known as Aubrey Holes about 1 m wide and deep
Stonehenge II:
Addition of the avenue that ran for about 510 m from the entrance of the circular earthwork in a straight
line
Around the centre the builders began to erect a double circle of bluestones, so called from their colour
(came from the Preslei Mountains in south-west Wales, about 135 miles from Stonehenge), set up in two
concentric circles about 1.8 m apart.
The north-east entrance marked with extra stones
On the opposite side a single large hole evidently held a stone of exceptional size, probably the present
altar stone
The four stations lie at the corners of a rectangle
Stonehenge III:
2.000 BC
Outer circle of 30 uprights of uniform height capped by a horizontal ring of stone lintels
This enclosed symmetrically a horseshoe of five trilithons
Stones have surfaces shaped and smoothed by poundng them with hammers, done before they were
erected
Transporting and raising the stones should have needed about 1.500 able bodied men > cooperation of
tribes
Stonehenge IV:
1.100 BC
The Avenue was extended from the end of the first straight stretch built in period II to the river Avon
3.2.2 The Boyne Ritual Landscape
County Meath, Ireland
3.200 BC
One of the most complexes in the British Isles
Three large passage mounts named Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth
Monuments maintained its relevance after cesead to be built, wooden circles were built outside both
Newgrange and Knowth
4. THE BRONZE AGE
Covers the period from about 2.400 to 700 BC
Marked by the appearance of metalworking, new burial practices, and an increase in trade and exchange
Metalworking:
The earliest evidence for metalworking in the British Isles can be dated to 2500 b.c. This technology was
introduced from the Continent
At first copper was used to create a limited range of simple tools, weapons, and ornaments.
By 2.200 BC they started using cooper mixed with tin: bronze
Both cooper and tin came from the Britis Isles
Agrarian economy in the early Bronze Age
1.500 BC: human groups started to enclose and divide the land by banks and ditches
Baker Folk:
name based on their distinctive pottery cups
preferred single graves
dead found equiped with tools and knives of cooper
4.1New materials and tools
Wessex people:
Brilliant organization abilities
Exceptional technical skills
Maestry of metal
They worked with tin, cooper and gold ores to create tools and ornaments
Bronze tools were more resistant and easy to shape than stone ones
British trade and production in bronze reached its peck in the VIII century BC
5. THE IRON AGE
800 BC
Civilized cultures of the Mediterranean sphere (greeks, etruscans,
phoenicians, romans)
There was an interaction between
The “barbarians”
Atlantic Zone (west Britain, Ireland and western seaboard of Europe)
They kept in contact by the sea exchanging ideas and gifts and trading with some commodities
Characterized by small homesteads (support a single extended family) scattered where the land was good.
Homesteads:
- Scotland: stone-built
Broch: large and round, considerable height, like towers
Duns: larger and less regular, seldom[rara vez]attained much height
South-west area: enclosed with earthworks
Rounds
Raths
- Southeastern Britain: larger, forming little villages but also many singles farmsteads scattered protected
by banks and ditches
Ireland: more elusive hilltop enclosures
5.1 The Hill-Fort Defences
From 800 BC until the Roman conquest in the first century
Around the beginning of the Iron Age hill forts proliferated specially in the central part of the island
By 300 BC had a vertical stone wall and a rock-cut ditch
Many went out of use about 50 BC
The hill-forts are varied in form: some are circular contour of about 5 hectares, other may be smaller and a few
are very large and defined by slight banks and ditches
Function:
the main function was not defence
social and ritual needs
massive defence and gates could have been designed to impress rather than to deter
5.2 Commerce and Art
Many areas and regions provided some goods in surplus such as corn, hides, wool or salt for exchange.
Warrior equipment arrived in the Islands gift exchange and were copied by local craftsmen
From about 500 BC, British warriors were equipped with iron stabbings swords and iron fitted chariots
They were CELTS, famous for they delight in decorations as well as for their notorious ferocity
6. THE CELTS
The term was eventually applied to a great variety of peoples or tribal groups who spoke closely related
languages and who shared a similar material culture. By the V Century BC their culture evolved into “La Tène”
The first written historical reference to Celts is around 450 BC: celtic settlements near the Danube. From this
point on, the migration of the Celts is recorded all over Europe.
They sacked Rome and controlled lands from Ireland and Spain to the plains of Hungary
Their territory consisted of independent kingdom or groups of kingdoms
The most important description of the Celts is from philosopher Posidonios and Julius Caesar: war-loving and
vainglorious. Champions, fought naked, engaged in single combat. Were driven int battle on chariots and took
the heads of their enemies.
Their priest were the Druids. The Roman conquest of Europe and the later barbarian invasion obscured the Celtic
past in these regions, but in non-Romanised Ireland a Celtic world survived.
6.1 Culture and art
La Tène is considered as the first definitive Celtic Art. Reached its flowering in the III century BC
In VII and VIII Centuries Irish society is Celtic but has traces of earlier peoples.
Celtic art was energetic, exuberant, explosive and full of humour. By about 200 BC an essentially British style of
Celtic art began to appear. They also appeared schools of artists.
55 BC: Romans came to Britain.
Specialist worked to produce products for the wealthy specially iron and bronze. Even articles for everyday use.
Inspiration: nature (gentle curves)
Native Celtic tradition now fused with these new ideas (culture of Rome) to create extremely rich cultural
environment. Ireland > manuscripts such as Book of Durrow and Book of Kells.
Gaelic language: mixture of Celtic and pre-Celtic languages
6.2 Architecture
Bronchs: strength and security. A communal farmhouse within a massive stone tower.
The best preserved bronch stands on a headland in Mousa, one of the Shetland Islands.
6.3 Society
Features preserved from previous societies.
Solar and lunar calendar.
Different tribes, each with its own territory (forest, agricultural land, wilderness) but unified by their religious
beliefs.
The Druids: priests that preserved a common culture, religion, history, laws, scholarship and science.
The Druids abandoned the great stone temples and returned to the old natural shrines, springs and groves.
They were not a hereditary class and enjoyed exception from compulsory service as warriors. They did not pay
taxes either.
The religion was of course DRUIDISM
