Today, Britain is an island. However, in the past Britain was actually physically connected to Europe. You could actually walk from Britain to France and not get your feet wet!
Why? Well, about 700,000 years ago the world was much colder than it is today. This was period is known as the Ice Age. Northern Europe was covered in glaciers and the seas seperating some areas, (like the North Sea between Britain and France), were much smaller or did not exist. Small numbers of ancient humans would have followed herds of animals as they migrated from Europe into what is now Britain. Large numbers of mammoths, elephants, rhinoceri and hippopatami were actually hunted by ancient humans known as Neanderthals!
Mesolithic Britain (10,000BP - 4,500BC)
Eventually, about 10,000 years ago the global environment began to get warmer and much of the glacial ice began to melt. The result of this warming was that seas and oceans began to rise, forests began to spread and new animals such as deer, and wild pigs appeared. Ancient humans had to adapt to survive. They began to create more complex stone tools and even used domesticated dogs for hunting. Around 8,000 years ago Britain would have been completely cut off from Europe. See what Mesolithic man ate here.
Neolithic Britain (4,500BC - 2,700BC)
Britain was now an island with a climate much like Hokkaido. The warmer environment meant that the human population would have increased as food resources increased. Eventually, larger numbers of people led to greater organization of society. Some people began to settle in one place and began farming in a tribal society. They built round houses made of wood and stone and built large enclosures for their animals. Religious practices became more complex and groups of neolithic Britons would have cooperated to build ceremonial places like Silbury Hill and Stonehenge. Here are some archaeological finds from Neolithic Britain:
Stone axe recovered from the Thames River and ceremonial axes imported from Europe
Bronze/Iron Age Britain (2,700BC - 100BC)
This period saw the introduction of metal working technology from mainland Europe perhaps through trade, migration, or a combination of both. Whatever happened there was a distinct change in prehistoric British culture at this time. Burial practices changed, social customs changed, and we can see increased trade contact with mainland Europe due to the large number of tin mines which were developed in southwestern Britain. Just as the development of agriculture in the Neolithic led to the development of tribal society, the development of a trading culture led to the development of more complex social organizations known as chiefdoms in which several thousand people may have lived in one community. Eventually conflict developed between different chiefdoms which led to the development of walled settlements and hill forts.
Here are some archaeological finds from Bronze Age Britain:
No comments:
Post a Comment