UNIT 1 EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS 1. THE PALEOLITHIC About one million years ago.

Four major phases of intense cold, the glaciations were separated by three warmer periods. British Isles uninhabitable with an ice-sheet up to 100 ft in the north. It was during the last glaciations that Modern Men lived at Kents caverns, near Torquay. In the late Ice Age, when Britain was still joined by a land-bridge to Europe, hunter nomads roamed southern England 1.1 THE NEANDERTHALS The Neanderthals evolved from the archaic human species that were already living there. A recent recovery of fossil Neanderthal DNA shows that they were not ancestral to modern humans. The only site so far discovered with Neanderthal human traits on the British Isles is in Wales. In England and Wales there are some remains of typical Middle Paleolithic flake tools. Neanderthals lived in isolated groups and did not go very far. They are considered the great survivor of the Ice Ages, and they have had Europe until about 40.000 years ago, when they were replaced by new settlers: modern Homo Sapiens, members of our own species. They brought new technology with a wide range of tool types including slender flint blades for inserting into knife handles and spearshafts. Some similarities in stone working techniques suggest that these first fully modern human settlers of Europe were migrants from the Middle East. Tools carved out of antler, ivory and bone is another feature of this stage. 1.2 THE FIST SETTLERS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND For most of the Ice Age, water was locked up in ice sheets. Sea levels were 100 meters lower than today and Britains was linked to the Continent by a land-bridge. The earliest evidence of human habitation dates back to about 500.000 years ago.
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Physically modern humans first reached Britain about 31.000 years ago, but they became widespread only towards the end of the last Ice Age, around 13.000 years ago. Sea levels raised and cut Britain and Ireland off form Europe around 5000 BC. When Britain was still joined to the Continent 250.000 years ago the first known inhabitant lived in the valley where the Kentish of Swanscombe now stands. His tribe shared the forest with prehistoric animals that meant two things for them: meat and danger. Armed only with wooden spears, the Swanscombe hunters tracked their prey in the forest and after a kill, they skinned and butchered the animal on the spot using hand-held flint axes, skillfully chipped to give cutting edges. Flints were so plentiful and easily chipped that, once used they were often simple thrown away. Swancombe man was not very different from men of today. His brain was much the same size. His life was precarious. Disease and hunting accidents must have taken a heavy toll. The question is if they knew the secret of fire. The hunters of the Old Stone Age were skilled at organising group expeditions to hunt. Their survival depended on their courage and skill. Animals warm skins gave the hunters comfort in the inhospitable world. At Kents cavern, a series of winding narrow passages and great chambers reaches more than 300ft into a limestone hill. There, 40.000 years ago, Old Stone Age people sheltered. Old Stone people possessed a high degree of artistic skill: They made barbed harpoons and spear-throwers. The hunters adorned themselves with strings of animal teeth and mollusk shells. They had a reverence for the dead, and almost certainly believed in life after death.

2. THE MESOLITHIC It covers the period from 10.000 to 5.500 BC after which farming was introduced. Warmer conditions which lead to a rise in sea levels, which finally established the shorelines of Britain as they are today. It appeared Mesolithic sites in England and Wales. Some evidences of human activity is recorded in Scotland and Ireland for the first time. In Ireland, new colonizers arrived by boat from Scotland. Mesolithic people were hunter-gatherer like their predecessors. They collected edible wild plants, fished and hunted animals. They used halted stone axes and bow hunting equipment, microliths, use in rows to form barbed arrowheads.
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Microliths were used also as drill bits for making stone heads and used as the blades of harvest knives. Other tools found include perforated elk antler mattocks. In the later Mesolithic, there was a tendency to settle: - some massive shell middens - food storage pits - territorial bounderies - planned cementeries

It appeared

Burials are generally of single individuals, apart from the cave of Avelines Hole, where a cemetery about 70-80 people was recorded. People moved up and down the main rivers, on a seasonal basis. 3. THE NEOLITHIC By 3000 BC self sufficient communities had spread to most parts of the country. Arrival of the first farmers in Britain by boat. They brought with them seed of barley and wheat and sheep and cattle. They introduced new types of stone tools including sickles. They cleared woods which covered most of the country These first farmers were semi-nomadic, moving on when grazing was exhausted. Life was hard. Crops and animals were prey to natural disasters and diseases. But, for the fist time, the food supply was at least partially under human control: Grain could be grown to last through a lean winter Cattle could be butchered to provide meat for some months Clothing made from their hides gave a wonderful protection against cold Farmers persisted and hunter-gathered bands gradually disappeared or were absorbed into the new activities. The tools were primitive digging sticks used for planting and hoeing later, plough pulled by men or oxen axes served to build timber and thatch huts pottery . Around 3.300 BC decorations

Farmers needed containers to store grain had begun to be scratched on the clay.

Agriculture helped to increase the population: the same area of land could support many more farmers than hunters. A more settled life became possible. 3.1. NEOLITHIC ARQUITECTURE

Some settled communities had grown up, ruled by relevant families. These had led, about 3000 2500 BC, to the building of great hill-top camps as meeting places, and to constructions of collective tombs for powerful men. The fist Britains monumental architecture was created. Men began building huge earthwork enclosures, or henges, at Avebury. The henges acted as religious centers and they were used for over 500 years. Silbury Hill: largest manmade structure in prehistoric Europe. Agriculture reached a stage where men could be spared from the fields for long stretches. This was achieved in only 1500 years. Men in this period were able to observe the sun, the moon and the stars. They used their knowledge to build some stone circles in which the stones were meticulously placed. These arrangements may have been used for a measurement of time, and to predict phases of the moon and even eclipses. In Britain, with its uncertain climate, this must have been valuable. 3.2. RITUAL MONUMENTS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND On several hilltops in southern Britain, large earthwork enclosures were erected. Around them were dug a series of ditches, which in places were bridged by solids causeways. They may have served as tribal gathering placed for barter, feasting or worship. There, scattered communities could reaffirm their rules and relationships one another. Social structure began to emerge: Top prominent men and their families, who received burials of marked splendor: tombs, long earthen barrows or mounds. These monumental structures were built in the heart of inhabited zones or along natural routes across the terrain, where they would have been accessible to a large number of people. STONEHENGE Unique because of the height of its stones the precision of their plan the refinements of their shaping and jointing the stone lintels on top of the uprights

It stands on Salisbury Plain. It is unknown what religious beliefs Stonehenge represents, or what forms of worship or ceremonies took place within it. It may have been used as astronomical observatory, to

record the movements of the rising and setting sun and moon along the horizon, and to predict eclipses. Four main periods in the building and use of Stonehenge, the third of which could be divided into three stages:

STONEHENGE I: It consisted of a circular earthwork enclosure surrounded by a bank with a ditch outside it, and a smaller bank outside the ditch. This earthwork was constructed in about 2.800 BC. In abroad entrance-gap on the north-east side there stood a pair of stones; and beyond there was a row of four large wooden posts, which perhaps supported timber lintels to form a triple gateway. During this period was placed Heel Stone. Inside the bank there was a ring of 56 pits, evenly spaced, known as Aubrey Holes. They are about 1 m wide and deep. Their purpose is unknown. Soon after they were dug they were re-filled with chalk. Later they were re-used for burials of cremated human bones. STONEHENGE II: It was altered by the addition of the Avenue, that ran for about 510 m from the entrance of the circular earthwork, in a straight line. Around the center, the builders erected a double circle of bluestones. They come from the south-west Wales. These bluestones were set up in two concentric circles. The north-east entrance marked with extra stones. On the opposite side, a single large hole evidently held a stone of exceptional size. The four stations lie at the corners of a rectangle. STONEHENGE III: The building began about 2000 years BC It consisted of an outer circle of 30 uprights stones capped by a horizontal ring of stone lintels. This enclosed symmetrically a horseshoe of five trilithons. All these stones have had their surfaces shaped and smoothed by pounding them with hammers. This must have been done before the stones were erected and could be turned over with levers. Transporting and raising the stones should have needed about 1.500 able bodied men, which means that needed the cooperation of tribes or clans spread over a much wider area. STONEHENGE IV:

About 1100 BC The Avenue was extended from the end of the first straight stretch built in period II to the river Avon. THE BOYNE RITUAL LANDSCAPE This ritual landscape, in County Meath, Ireland, is one of the most complex in the British Isles. Three large passage graves, dating from the early 3RD millennium BC, are the focus of smaller graves, artificial ponds, standing stones and wooden structures. The most relevant structures are the passage graves of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, which have been described as the cathedrals of the megalithic religion. Each of these sites may have been accompanied by a cemetery of small tombs. The passage graves were decorated and their mounds were probably covered in quartz. This group of monuments maintained its relevance and became the focus of new monuments. Small wooden circles were built outside both Newgrange and Knowth, and in the wider landscape a number of larger henge monuments as well as standing stones were erected. At his time, some artificially created ponds were built but it is unknown its function.

4. THE BROZE AGE The Bronze Age in Britain and Ireland covers the period from about 2400 to about 700 BC. Ongoing use of stone circles and communal burials in chambered tombs. The great Neolithic monuments were in active use. There was an agrarian economy in the early Bronze Age. Pigs were also reared apart from cattle and sheep. By 1500 human groups started to enclose and divide the land by banks and ditches. Timber buildings. The latter half of the second millennium soil to maintain productivity. awareness of the importance of nurturing

The old ancestral tombs stopped using and some blocked. New traditions had arisen, including that of individual elite burials under cairns or barrows. Bronze Age peoples established their characteristic round barrows in a variety of designs after 1400 BC.

An example of that time is the Beaker Folk. Distinctive cups buried with their dead. They preferred single graves. Dead found equipped with archers bows and knives of cooper. Metal was the outstanding contribution of these people. Pottery with geometric markings. 4.1 NEW MATERIALS AND TOOLS The Wessex people brought rich metal resources of Britain under their control and founded a culture of exceptional wealth and power. Goods were exchanged with inhabitants of Ireland, Scandinavia, Brittany and central Europe and perhaps Mediterranean. Their brilliant organizational abilities Their exceptional technical skill Their mastery of metal made the Wessex people the master craftmen of their age

They worked the valuable tin, copper and gold ores to create useful tools and beautiful ornaments. COPPER + TIN = BROZE Unlike stones, bronze tools could be recast if they broke, re-straightened if they bent, and sharpened over and over again. At first, bronze seems to have been used for luxury goods only. A few centuries later, more effective daggers were made, together with flat bronze axes. Supplies of bronze increased, so did the range of products and the technical skill of the smiths. British trade and production in bronze reached its peak in the 8th century BC. Bronze Age monuments were spectacular but few in number. 5. THE IRON AGE 800 BC Civilized cultures of the Mediterranean sphere (greeks, etruscans, phoenicians, romans) There was an interaction between The barbarians

The 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
The Brochs: large and round, considerable height, like towers The 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. HILL-FORT DEFENCES It was around the beginning of the Iron Age, from about 700 BC, that hill forts proliferated, specially in the central part of the island. The term hill-fort covers a variety of different kinds of fortified site built and used from 800 BC until the Roman conquest in the first century AD. By 300 BC had a vertical stone wall and rock-cut ditch. Many went out of use as major centres around 50 BC. The hill-forts are varied in form. Some are roughly circular contour works of about 5 hectares; other may be smaller and a few are very large and defined by slight banks and ditches. The main function was not defence against attack. Social and ritual needs. Massive defence and gates could have been designed to impress rather than to deter, proclaiming the status. Evidence of attack has, however, been identified. Around 300 BC many were abandoned while a few continued and became more strongly defended with massive ditches.

5.2. COMMERCE AND ART Many areas and regions provided some goods in surplus such as corn, hides, wool, salt, for exchange. People of Ireland and the British Isles were able to absorb new ideas from the Continent. In the seventh and six centuries BC, warrior equipment such swords and horse arrived in the island as gift exchange and were copied by local craftsmen. From about 500 BC, British warriors were equipped with iron stabbings swords and, occasionally, iron-fitted chariots. They were Celts, famous for they delight in decorations as well as for their notorious ferocity. Iron producing process remained unknown to generations of British bronze-smiths. The Atlantic seaways were active for the metals, copper, gold and tin. Tin was demanded because of its scarcity. British tin was reaching as far as the Mediterranean and so the Atlantic seaways continued to develop and expand.

6. THE CELTS The term Celts 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 5th century BC, their material culture evolved into La Tne. Magnificent artefacts were discovered in princely graves weapons, vehicles, rich personal ornaments, and highly decorated utensils. There was evidence of trade with the Mediterranean. The first written historical reference to Celts is around 450 BC when the greek historian Herodotus told of celtic settlements near the source of 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. At no point did the Celts form an empire, their territory consisted of independent kingdom or groups of kingdoms. The most important description of the Celts is from Julius Caesar: war-loving. vainglorious Champions fought naked engaged in single combat, were driven into battle on chariots and took the heads of their enemies. Their priests were the Druids. By the time of Julius Caesar they had towns engaged in international trade, used coinage and some Celtic were using writing. The Roman conquest of Europe and the later barbarian invasions obscured the Celtic past in these regions, but in non-Romanised Ireland a Celtic world survived.

The Celts established in well defended hill-forts in the south and west of England. There is no direct relationship between the extent of the Celtic languages and the La Tne culture of the middle European migrants.

6.1. CULTURE AND ART La Tne art is considered as the first definitive Celtic Art. Initially its fantastic imagery often included interpretations of classical and oriental forms, but later its distinctive styles were more reminiscent of plant forms. The La Tne culture reached its flowering in the 3rd century BC. In 7th and 8th centuries, Irish society is Celt but has traces of earlier peoples. When the Celts arrived in Ireland and Britain is a matter of continuing debate, but traces of La Tne culture are found in the 3rd century BC. 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. When the Romans came to Britain in 55 BC, British craftsmen were lavishing their skills on objects used to display wealth and status: weapons, shields, helmets and horse trappings. Specialists worked full-time and excelled in metalwork, specially iron and bronze. Even articles for everyday use were enlivened. The artists took inspirations from nature, repeating the gentle curves of the hills. The coming of Christianity brought that Native Celtic tradition fused with the culture of Rome. This created an extremely rich cultural environment. Ireland produced some of the greatest works of Celtic art, including epic hero-tales and high crosses that were distinctive features of Celtic Christianity. The Gaelic language was a mixture of Celtic and pre-Celtic languages. Gaelic was introduced to Scotland by Irish settlement. Another branch of Celtic language continues in the native languages of Wales and Britanny. 6.2. ARCHITECTURE The Celtic architects put all the emphasis on strength and security and the Brochs must have been among the strongest fortresses in all prehistoric Europe. From the safety of the fortresses home, the tribesmen traded skins, wool, hides, corn and slaves for iron and bronze weapons and goods from the south. Over 500 brochs like that are known in Scotland. Some Celts sail in search of a safe place for a farmstead on the lake island of

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Clickhimin and from there the Celts took the idea of the round stone houses protected by a circular wall that were there and set a broch. Broch: it stood 40-50 ft high. The main entrance, at ground level, was a long passage through the wall, opening into the central courtyard. A solid wooden door in the entrance. The central courtyard was surrounded by tiers of timber rooms, two or three storeys high. A staircase led from the first floor to the top of the tower. Two small rooms inside the wall at ground level provided storage space or additional living-rooms. The work of the community was done on the ground floor. And jobs as smithing, corngrinding and weaving in the rooms around it. There also housed the cattle in winter. People lived and slept in the upper storeys. Some communities, such as the Clickhimin one prospered and built a great amount of brochs. The best preserved one stands on a lonely headland of Mousa: 6.3. SOCIETY The social structure based on a religious cosmology and democratic idealism. Each tribe had its own territory consisted of forest and wilderness, common lands and agricultural holdings. Everyones rights and obligations were carefully defined. Some of the land was worked in common and the rest was apportioned as family farms. Annual assemblies where land disputes were decided, petty offenders were tried and chiefs and officials, both male and female, were appointed by popular vote. The Druids had paramount authority over every tribal chief. Their efforts preserved common culture, religion, history, laws, scholarship and science. They also taught the traditional doctrine of souls immortality and reincarnation. Druidism originated in Britain. It has all the appearance of a native religion. Its miths and heroic legends are related to the ancient holy places of Britain. In Celtic, as in previous times, the same holy wells and nature shrines were visited on certain days for their spiritual virtues. In the course of time, society became more structured and elaborate and the Druids laws more rigid. Up to twenty years of oral instruction and memorizing was required of a pupil before being admitted into their order. Minstrels and bards were educated by the Druids for similar periods. Population are predominantly of native Mesolithic ancestry. Their knowledge of astronomy may have descended from priests of megalithic times. The Druids abandoned the great stone temples and reverted to the old natural shrines, the springs and groves where they held their rituals. A spiritual revival seems to have occurred in Britain in about 2000 BC with the building of Stonehenge, temple of the Druids.

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All Celtic men of substance were included amongst the druids or the nobles, who were the learned and priestly class, and were the chief enforcers and guardians of the law. Druids were able to render people insane, forecast the future by watching the clouds, confer invisibility and had various means of adivination. Druids didnt have to serve as warriors and they were free of taxes. Especially Ireland was full of sacred places. Monarchy became the form of government. Ireland was divided into kingdoms and these kingdoms into stated called Tuatha. There were a hundred or so by about 1000AD. The religion was of course Druidism. Their written language was Ogam. This language was largely known through funeral descriptions on upright stones or tense passages or written on wooden staves.

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