by Michael G. Lamoureux, March/April 2009
While there is evidence to support the inhabitation of Britain by our ancestors, including homo heidelbergensis, as far back as 500,000 years, the history of homo sapiens in Ancient Britain begins about 11,000 years ago in the early stages of the post-glacial era between 9,000 and 8,000 BC, when the whole of the southern North Sea basin was dry land, and the pre-history ends with the Roman Occupation of 43 AD that brought written history to Britain. The "land bridge" during the early stages of the post-glacial era allowed early Mesolithic groups from the adjacent areas of Denmark, northern Germany, and southern Sweden access to what is now Great Britain.
The Mesolithic
Mesolithic Britain, from about 9,000 BC to 4,000 BC, was sparsely populated by hunter-gatherer tribes that were very similar to the hunter-gather tribes in the rest of Western Europe at the time. Their tools were fashioned from flakes of flint, wood, bone, and (deer) antler; the hunting and butchering of wild animals was still the most important activity; and many of their seasonal camp sites were in rock shelters and cave mouths, such as the shelter at Cresswell in Derbyshire.
Evidence of hunting tools and techniques of the period is well preserved by finds from sites such as High Furlong in Lancashire where a barbed point was found embedded in an elk skeleton and Star Carr in North Yorkshire, England. Star Carr, one of the earliest known Mesolithic sites in Great Britain, which was found to be occupied by small groups of hunters between 8700 and 8400 BC through radiocarbon dating, is located 7 km to the south of Scarborough on the northern margins of an area of flat, peat-covered ground that, in the early stages of the post-glacial era, was occupied by a large lake approximately 5 km by 2 km in area. Archaeological finds from the site include flint microliths (of triangular, trapezoidal and obliquely blunted forms) that were used for arrow tips and barbs, flint scrapers, burins, rotary awls, transversely sharpened flint axes, multi-barbed spear points made from red deer antlers using the "groove and splinter" technique, antler-tine wedges, bone pins, bone headdresses, and beads.
While the introduction of agriculture to Britain occurred significantly later than Mesopotamia and other parts of Europe, there is significant evidence to suggest that the early Mesolithic settlers to Britain were managing the land shortly after their arrival. Analysis of lake-edge sediments at Star Carr have revealed successive levels of charcoal fragments that suggest repeated, and almost certainly, deliberate burning of lake-edge red-swamp vegetation extending over the occupied time-span of roughly 300 years. Furthermore, tranchets (heavy axes for clearing trees and brush) have been discovered at multiple early Mesolithic sites.
Mesolithic hunter gatherers expanded their subsistence strategies during the Mesolithic. They developed spear tips and barbs specialized for different types of animals, birds, and even fish and gathered shellfish, fruits, roots, and nuts, including hazelnuts, to supplement their primary diet of wild game. At the Mesolithic site of Staosnaig, on the Hebridean Island of Islay in Scotland, thousands of charred hazelnuts were found.
The Neolithic
Just like the Mesolithic came to Britain about 4,000 years after it started in Mesopotamia, the Neolithic, generally associated with the dawn of barbarism (in the words of British anthropologist Ed Tyler) and agriculture, also came to Britain about 4,000 years after it started in Mesopotamia around 4,000 BC, approximately 2,000 years after the marshy North Sea land bridge was flooded, when archaeological evidence indicates that farming took over southern England, spreading to Scotland shortly after.
One of the earliest known Neolithic sites is at Balbirdie in the Grampains in Scotland which dates to between 3900 and 3800 BC. It contained a large timber hall and large quantities of charred cereal grains -- primarily emmer wheat, naked barley, and bread wheat -- were found at the site. Farming spread to the Orkney islands, about 15 km off of the northern tip of Scotland, shortly after and the oldest known Neolithic settlement in the region is at Knap of Howar on the island of Papa Westray and dates to be between 3600 and 3100 BC. Another site is at Skara Brae, occupied and rebuilt over several centuries between 3100 BC and 2500 BC. In addition to farming of wheat and barley, the Skara Brae inhabitants fished and kept cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep. (There is evidence of the widespread use of milk products during the Neolithic between 4100 and 3500 BC, indicating that animal herding was as important as crop farming in many places.)
It was during the early Neolithic that the population of Britain first started to build causewayed enclosures and (long) barrows. A causewayed, or interrupted ditch, enclosure is a roughly circular area delineated by ditches and embankments that are interrupted every few meters to form a large number of crossing places. While most of the known sites are in southern England, there are also known examples in Scotland and northern Ireland. The earliest known sites, that include Maiden Castle, Dorset, and Windmill Hill, date back to between 3900 and 3700 BC and were often used to "pen" domesticated animals and cultivate plants, although some examples, including Hambledon Hill (an "island hill" on the northwest edge of the Cretaceous ridge as it crosses southern England where Cranborne Chase and the North Dorset Downs are cut by the River Stour) that dates between 3800 and 3600 BC, were thought to be more of a ceremonial or funerary nature.
A barrow is a mound of earth or rubble that contains one or several burials. The long barrow is a long rectangular mound of earth or rubble covering a burial place. Examples include Fussell's Lodge in Wiltshire, which contained 50 individual burials, and 46 at West Kennet (also in Wiltshire) that contained 46 individual burials.
The barrows evolved into chambered tombs, which split off a main passage, and which were often accompanied by henges, circular banked earthwork monuments which often contained circular timber structures in the early Neolithic (and then circular stone structures in the later Neolithic). Some of the chambered tombs, including the Cotsworld-Severn group of Western England and Wales, were quite elaborate and had numerous chambers leading off of the main passage. One of the best preserved henge monuments of the period is Avebury in southern England which was a dense Neolithic complex of surrounding monuments that dates from between 4000 and 3800 BC to the beginning of the British Bronze age in 2000 BC and included a dense concentration of long barrows, avenues of posts and stones, circular ceremonial buildings, enclosures, and henges.
It was also during the Neolithic that the first mines and "factories" appeared in Britain. While rare, flint mines, such as Grime's Graves in Norfolk, appeared in Britain. Consisting of a series of shafts up to 15m deep, the mines were laboriously dug using picks or crowbars made from the antlers of red deer and the rubble was scraped up with shovels fashioned from the shoulder blades of cattle. In addition, industrial axe factory sites, such as the one at Langdale in Cumbria, appeared where the rocks suitable for the construction of efficient polished stone axes naturally occurred. These axes were then exchanged for food over long distances. (For example, finds that contain axes from Langdale are most common in the east riding of Yorkshire.)
The Bronze Age
The Bronze Age, which came to Britain about 2,000 years later than Mesopotamia and began around 2,000 BC, brought the metalworking revolution and organized warfare. While there is some evidence of warfare from late Neolithic sites, the Bronze Age saw the introduction of box-rampart architecture, fortifications with wall-and-fill, during the earliest Hallstatt phases of the later Bronze Age that were specifically designed to defend a settlement. In fact, by the late bronze age, Britain was a society headed by sword-carrying and spear-bearing warriors, who likely rode the first domesticated horses in Britain, that was supported by a large peasantry who farmed and raised animals.
The first evidence of the metalworking revolution in Britain comes from burial sites of the "Beaker Culture" who buried their dead with gold jewelry and copper daggers around 2,000 BC. The culture, which may have begun as a religious cult devoted to the consumption of alcohol, was increasingly concerned with the individual whereas earlier Neolithic societies were more concerned with the community. And while there is little evidence of actual conflict, the archery gear, daggers, stone battle axes, and military belts common to the culture indicates an emphasis on warlike virtues which may have paved the way for the military-rule which would appear later in the bronze age.
Approximately 400 years later, around 1600 BC, the Beaker Culture was replaced by the Wessex Culture which formed around Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Dorset. One of several regional traditions in Britain that evolved within a broad framework of common culture and social organization, the Wessex Culture was also concerned with the individual and left us many artifacts of personal adornment. The society was quite wealthy and appears to have controlled the metal trade with the continent and communities in Ireland.
About two hundred years later, or 1400 BC, a series of major changes occurred -- including new forms of pottery, the move from inhumation to cremation, new types of metalwork, better (and more plentiful) weaponry, and new forms of settlements with ramparts, ditches, and palisades -- that completely separated the new (late) bronze age societies, ruled by sword-carrying and spear-bearing warriors, from their Neolithic precursors. Examples of the new types of settlement include Staple Howe in Yorkshire, which was enclosed by a timber palisade, Ram's Hill in Berkshire and Mam Tor in Derbyshire that had massive timber and stone ramparts, and Leskernick in southwestern England that contained a series of dry stone-walled enclosure walls on a rock granite hillside overlooking a standing stone complex.
In addition to new tools, settlements, and styles of life, the Bronze Age also saw the introduction of one of the most significant forms of prehistoric boats, which have been found at the Humbar Estuary on the east coast of England, on the Welsh side of the Severn Estuary, and in Dover in southeastern England. Made from sewn-plank construction, these craft, which could have crossed the North Sea and have been propelled by sail as well as paddling, date back to before 2,000 BC and demonstrate an advanced level of technological skill in boatbuilding.
The Iron Age
The first iron objects, which took the form of swords and razors, appeared in Britain approximately 900 years after the start of iron making in Northern Turkey around 600 BC and the use of iron spread quickly thereafter. In the iron age, the warrior elite that emerged at the end of the Bronze Age continued to dominate society, build better forts, and create networks of strongholds, such as the multi-vallate site at Maiden Castle with multiple ditches and sophisticated sloping ramparts, that allowed them to control entire landscapes.
The typical iron age rural settlement was the single farmstead enclosed by banks and ditches to keep stock in and wolves and thieves out. Mixed farming was the rule, wheat was the most important crop and usually ground using small stone hand-mills, and cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were the primary animals. This was the case up until the Roman invasion and conquest of Britain in 43 AD, which brought Britain out of pre-history and into history and had enormous consequences for every aspect of British life.