Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE TWO

Prehistory of the British Isles

1

General characteristics of prehistory of the British Isles

•

abundance of monuments and megaliths, e.g. about 900 stone circles and henges

•

distinctive monuments often separated from chronological and regional developments

•

great material wealth of monuments and megaliths

700,000 – c. 8,300 BC – Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)

•

The Paleolithic encompasses several glacial and interglacial periods – the end of the
last Ice Age – 10,000 BC

•

700,000 BC – the earliest human implements – Suffolk

•

500,000 BC – Boxgrove Man in Boxgrove, West Sussex – Homo heidelbergensis,
ancestor of Neanderthals

•

hunter-gatherer cultures, flint tools, handaxes, microliths

•

30,000 BC – Homo sapiens in Britain

c. 10,000 – 4,000BC – Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)

Separation of the Isles from the Continent:

•

12,000 BC – Ireland detached

•

10,000 BC – the end of the last Ice Age – the final resettlement

•

6,500 BC - Great Britain detached – the English Channel formed

Mesolithic sites

•

Star Carr, North Yorkshire (8700 – 7600 BC)

•

Cheddar Man, Gough Cave, Cheddar Gorge, Somerset (7150 BC)

c. 4000 – 2000 BC – Neolithic (New Stone Age)

-

Neolithic Revolution – farming and domestication reach the British Isles

-

wheat in the south, barley in the north

-

construction of monuments

-

pottery, movement of artifacts and ideas, shared beliefs

Major Neolithic centers in the British Isles:

•

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire – “the ritual landscape of prehistoric Britain”

•

Orkney

•

Boyne Valley

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE TWO

Prehistory of the British Isles

2

NEOLITHIC STRUCTURES

-

The Sweet Track – ancient timber causeway in Somerset, England (3806/7 BC) -
most likely the oldest road in the world

-

causewayed enclosures

-

Skara Brae, Orkney (3100-2500 BC) - most complete Neolithic village in Europe

-

MEGALITHIC TOMBS (mostly for communal burials)

o

long barrows – communal burials

o

The Archeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne, Meath, Ireland –
passage tombs in Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth (c. 3200 BC)

o

Maeshowe (Maes Howe), Orkney - looted by the Vikings in the 12

th

century

o

portal tombs/dolmens/quoits

-

Henges (circular earthwork enclosures)

o

Stonehenge (2,800-1,600 BC)

o

Avebury, Wiltshire (2,800 – 1,600 BC) - the largest henge in Britain

o

Ring of Brodgar, Mainland, Orkney (2500-2000BC)

-

SILBURY HILL, Wiltshire - the largest prehistoric mound in Europe

c. 2400 – 700 BC – Bell Beaker folk (Bronze Age)

•

copper and tin metalwork

•

mining tin in Cornwall and copper in Ireland

•

beaker pots, pottery, axe industry, jewelry, bronze weapons and tools

•

probably spoke an Indo-European language

BRONZE AGE STRUCTURES

•

round barrows (for elite individual burials)

•

Bryn Celli Dhu, Anglesey, Wales

•

Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre, Peterborough

•

Tarr Steps clapper bridge, Exmoor National Park, Somerset

HILL FIGURES (chalk figures)

•

Uffington White Horse, Oxfordshire

•

Long Man of Wilmington, East Sussex

•

Cerne Abbas Giant (Rude Man), Dorset

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE TWO

Prehistory of the British Isles

3

Iron Age in the British Isles

Iron Age Britain – c. 700 BC – Roman times (55/54 BC) 43 AD – 410 AD
Iron Age Ireland (Early Ireland) – c. 700 BC – c. 400 AD (431/432 AD)

CELTS in EUROPE

-

the Celts - a linguistic and cultural community, NOT national, ethnic or racial

-

Greek keltoi – strangers

-

mastery of iron smelting (deforestation begins)

-

tribal kingdoms and regional structures

Hallstatt culture (8

th

– 6

th

cent. BC) - hardly present in the British Isles

La Tene culture (Celtic art) (450 BC – 1

st

cent. BC) – widely present in the British Isles

CELTS (Britons) IN BRITAIN

Invasion Hypothesis - refuted
Diffusion of patterns from the continent – probable

Romans call the inhabitants of the British Isles ‘Britons’ not ‘Celts’
‘Britons’ are called ‘Celts’ in the 18

th

cent.

Numerous kingdoms, tribes and clans often at war
Strong CLAN system and TANISTRY, surviving much later in Scotland and Ireland e.g.
O’Neal

Atrebates - based around Silchester, coins present a three tailed horse.
Cattuvelauni - capital in Verulamium.
Ordovices - never Romanized, constant opposition to the Romans.
Brigantes - the largest tribe of the Roman conquest, found Eboracum.
Trinovantes – large amounts of Roman specimens long before the conquest
Picts - of uncertain origin, probably pre-Celtic, warlike tribes,attacking Britain from the
north.

CELTS in Ireland

-

about 150 small tribal kingdoms

-

later arranged into five kingdoms (“Pentarchy”):

o

Ulaidh (Ulster)

o

Midhe (Meath)

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE TWO

Prehistory of the British Isles

4

o

Laighin (Leinster)

o

Mumha (Munster)

o

Cruchain (Connacht)

-

later giving rise to four ancient Irish provinces – Ireland never developed a system of
central power, instead - High Kingship of Ireland and the Hill of Tara

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

I.

tribal chieftains (often women); taoiseach among the Irish tribes

II.

nobles

1.

warriors

2.

druids (priesthood)

3.

brehons in Ireland (Brehon Laws recorded from 600AD abolished
in the 17

th

century)

4.

bards

III.

free farmers, merchants, craftsmen

IV.

slaves (war captives)

BELIEFS and MYTHOLOGY

-

oak trees

-

mistletoe

-

rivers, lakes, wells – used for votive offerings

-

bulls, deer, wild boar, bears

-

salmon – symbol of wisdom

-

the sun and the moon

-

human heads

-

known for human sacrifices - bog bodies

-

Otherworld

-

polytheistic

-

Celtic games (major center - Tara in Ireland)

-

river names: Thames, Mersey, Severn, Avon

MATERIAL LEGACY

-

La Tene stones

-

torcs, rich ornaments

-

hill-forts, e.g. Maiden Castle, Old Sarum

–

oppida (south-east Britain)

–

ring forts/raths/fairy forts/duns (Ireland)

–

brochs

–

lake villages (crannogs)