"A tiny guide to British prehistory." by leics

The Paleolithic.

The earliest evidence we have for hominids in Britain comes from Boxgrove, in Sussex, where a human tibia has been dated to about 250, 000 years ago. This places it well before the Anglian Ice Age.The bone belonged to a tall, robust male, probably Homo Heidelbergensis. The Boxgrove site is uniquely important because its layers are undisturbed, the scatters of butchered bone and stone tools lying exactly as they were left. It is still being excavated and you can find more details on the Boxgrove website.

Later glacial activity in Britain has swept away much evidence for human activity, but a few sites remain. There is plenty of evidence for Neanderthal activity (stone tools), but their skeletal remains are limited to a few teeth (Pontnewydd cave, South Wales). Their presence dates from around 200 000 years ago.

The Upper Paleolithic coincides with the decline of the Neanderthals and the first evidence for Homo Sapiens Sapiens in Northern Europe (c. 40 - 30 000 years ago). Upper Paleotlithic technology is quite distinctive, in particular the appearance of long stone blades rather than flake tools. the best known burial from this time is the 'Red Lady of Paviland', found in a cave in South Wales. A young male (not a lady..... the original identification in the 1820's was incorrect), his skeleton was stained with red ochre. It is clear that he was buried with some ceremony.

By 10 000 years ago the ice had finally gone, the climate had warmed up and Britain was a realm inhabited by mobile bands of hunter/ gatherers. One of the most important Mesolithic sites is Starr Carr, in East Yorkshire, which provided a wealth of information about hunting. Antler was worked to make barbed spearheads, tiny flakes of flint (microliths) were shaped and fitted onto wooden shafts to create lethal arrowheads and a whole range of wood- and antler-working tools were produced.

It is difficult to find Mesolithic sites, for they built with wood and that degrades and disappears in most circumstances. But their tools still remain in the soil and, if you are lucky, will be disturbed by the plough and appear on the surface.

The transition to settled farming communities occurred about 5000 years ago. It is important not to think of this as a sudden event.....there was no 'invasion' of farmers from abroad. Rather, communication between Britain and the continent (which was not new.......Mesolithic boats have been found) led to a gradual change in lifestyle.

The Neolithic is the great age of building in stone (although most visitors to Stonehenge do not realise that a huge ring of wooden timbers maybe 40 feet high preceded it; their site is marked with white circles in the car park). All the most famous 'tourist sights' date from this time ........Avebury, Silbury Hill, West Kennet longbarrow.....and there are many more, less well-known, circles, barrows and mounds across the country. www.stonehenge-avebury.net

To see British prehistory superbly preserved, and to understand how life fitted within and related to, the surrounding landscape, visit Orkney ....... it is truly wonderful there.

As life became more sedentary and pastoral, fields, roads and trackways came into existence. The earliest evidence for bronze-working comes from about 4000 years ago. Copper was extensively mined in Britain ...... you can visit the copper mines at Llandudno, North Wales......but we have no evidence for the 'Copper Age' which is found in Europe.

Most of the bronze implements which have survived seem to have been disposed of deliberately........otherwise they could have been melted down and re-used. A ritual link with water is becoming increasingly clear as more and more objects, often deliberately broken, are found deposited at the edges of watery sites. Flag Fen is a huge Bronze Age site near Peterborough, with an excellent visitors' centre. About 1300 BCE a line of 60 000 posts, in five parallel rows, was laid out to form a 'causeway'. Only partially excavated, Flag Fen has already produced over 300 objects deposited into its waters.

The use of iron in Britain began around 700 CBE, although the change from bronze took several centuries to complete. During this early part of the Iron Age great social changes took place. The population increased, as did contact with the continent, and warrior leaders became important.

By the time of the Roman invasion in AD 43 Britain was divided into tribal groups, whose names we know from Roman history. Many heavily defended hill-forts still exist from this time, perhaps the most stunning being Maiden Castle in Dorset. This is the largest hill-fort in Europe, enclosing 47 acres, its ramparts rise to 20 feet (6 metres). The Romans fought, and won, a bloody battle against the Durotriges tribe here.

Many people do not realise that, well before the Romans, trade with the continent was well-established. Britain exported, amongst other things, grain, hides, hunting dogs and slaves. Luxury goods, such as wine, were imported for those rich enough to afford them, particularly in the south-east. The sons of some chieftains were educated in Rome, and there is increasing evidence for the development of 'towns' (oppida). The impression sometimes given of an island of woad-covered savages being 'civilised' by the Romans is derived from Roman propaganda and not from archaeological evidence. History, after all, is written by the victors.

British prehistory stops, and our written history begins, with the Roman invasion. That'll be the next album.