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Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history or the invention of writing

systems. Prehistory refers to the period of human existence before the availability of
those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it can refer
to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing.
The Hunters
The first people lived in England about 450,000 BC. At that time England was much
warmer than it is today. Animals like elephants, lions and rhinoceros lived in England
alongside deer, horses, bear and wolves. The humans made simple stone tools and
lived in caves.
In 15,000 BC people were still living in caves but they made much more
sophisticated tools of bone and stone. They also made clothes from animal skins and
they made 'jewellery' of animal teeth and shells. These early people hunted animals
like horse, deer and wild cats.
In those days England was covered in tundra but about 8,500 BC the climate grew
much warmer. Forests spread across England. At the same time England was cut off
from Europe.
About 7,500 BC a group of humans lived at Star Carr in Yorkshire. They were huntergatherers. They hunted deer, bears, wild cattle, pigs and elk. They also ate birds,
fish and shellfish. By this time humans had also domesticated dogs. They may also
have made boats.
The Farmers
Then about 4,500 BC farming was introduced into England. Using stone axes the
farmers began clearing the forests that covered England. They grew crops of wheat
and barley and they raised herds of cattle, pigs and sheep. However as well as
farming they also hunted animals such as deer, horse, and wild boar and smaller
animals such as beavers, badgers and rabbits. They also gathered fruit and nuts.
At the same time the early farmers mined flint for making tools. They dug shafts,
some of them 15 metres (50 feet) deep. They used deer antlers as picks and oxen
shoulder blades as shovels. They also made pottery vessels but they still wore
clothes made from skins. They made simple wooden huts to live in.
From about 2,500 BC England the Neolithic (new stone age) farmers made circular
monuments called henges. At first they were simple ditches with stones or wooden
poles built in them. The most famous henge is, of course, Stonehenge. It began as a
simple ditch with an internal bank of earth. Outside the entrance stood the Heel
Stone. The famous circles of stones were built hundreds of years later. Stonehenge
was altered and added to over a thousand year period from 2250 BC to 1250 BC
before it was finished.

The Bronze Age


At any rate by 2,000 BC English society was changed by the invention of Bronze.
Metal artefacts appeared in England as early as 2,700 BC although it is believed
they were imported. By about 2,000 BC bronze was being made in England.
The Bronze Age people also rode horses and they were the first people in England to
weave cloth. Bronze age women held their hair with bone pins and they wore
crescent shaped necklaces.
In the late Bronze Age (1,000 BC-650 BC) forts were built on hills so warfare was, it
seems, becoming common. This may have been because the population was rising
and fertile land was becoming harder to obtain.
The dead were buried with useful artifacts. Presumably the living believed the dead
would need these in the afterlife. Unfortunately since they had no written records
nothing is known about the Bronze Age religion.
We know that Bronze Age people lived in round wooden huts with thatched roofs but
nothing is known about their society or how it was organised. However there were
almost certainly different classes by that time. Tin and copper were exported from
Britain along with animal hides. Jet and amber were imported for the rich

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