Prehistoric Beginnings, Celtic and Roman Britain

Cultural History of Britain

Lecture 2

Timeline 1c. 450,000 – 10,000 BC Palaeolithic (Early Stone Age)

c. 10,000 – 4,500 BC Mesolithic hunting-gathering communities over Europe c. 7000 – the “land bridge” connecting the continent and the would-be

British Isles disappears “flaked stones”

c. 4,500 – 2500 BC Neolithic (New Stone Age) cultivation of land, domestication of animals first built monuments on the British Isles (tombs, religious sites) megaliths and dolmen polished stone and flint axes first pottery tribal communities dramatic events related to religion and the burial of the dead

Palaeolithic Britain: The Red Lady of Paviland (Gower, Wales)

Bones of a young man who died about 26,000 years ago (discovery: 1823)

(Aldhouse-Green)

Neolithic Britain 1: Stonehenge (Salisbury Plain, c. 3000 BC)

•Built in 4 waves in the Stone and Bronze Ages•Bluestones (up to 4 tons, from Wales, Preseli Mountains)•Sarsen stones (up to 40 tones, Marlborough Downs)•Why was it built? (Druids, religious site, calendar, burial or healing place)

Neolithic Britain 2: Newgrange (Ireland, c. 3300-2900)

•Passage tombs•Ashes and bones in the central chamber•Winter solstice

Timeline 2c. 2300 – 700 BC Bronze Age

First metalwork (bronze and gold)Monuments (stone circles) 18th century BC – immigration of Beaker FolkSettlementsField systems, land divisions Bog bodies (mummification, human sacrifice?)

c. 700 BC – 43 AD Iron Age (Celtic Britain)Immigration of Celts from the continent in several wavesAgricultural settlement (roundhouses)Hill-fortsLate period: enclosed settlements in the southIncreasing contacts with the continent

The Bronze Age 1: Beaker Folk (Bell-Shaped Pottery)

•Might have brought bronz to Britain•Later: Wessex Culture

The Bronze Age 2: The Cladh Hallan Mummies (1600-700 BC, Hebrides)

The Iron Age 1: Celtic Tribes

Two different waves and cultures: Hallstatt culture (Austria)La Tène culture (territory of the Danube and Rhine, Eastern

France)Surviving Celtic languages: Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Welsh

Highly developed metalwork (stylised, abstract), two schools: North-East: repoussé bronze (horse-masks, shields, stylised

plant forms)South-West: engraving of bronze mirrors, theme of three

The Iron Age 2: The „Insular” Art of the Celts – Metalwork

The Iron Age 3: Celtic Hoards – Votive Offerings

The Iron Age 3: the Hill-Fort Maiden Castle (near Dorchester, completed in the 5th c. BC)

The Iron Age 4: the Roundhouse

The Iron Age 5: Prehistoric Hill Figures

•A number of white chalk figures on plains and hillsides•Uffington White Horse (1st c. BC)

Probably Celtic tribal symbol

• Cerne Giant (Cerne Abbas, Dorset, ambiguous date, 2nd c. BC or AD, or 5th c. AD

Connected to ancient fertility rites

Timeline 3

43 AD – 410 – Roman Britain 43 AD: King Verica invites the Romans to liberate his territory

from a neighbouring, hostile tribe after 57 AD: revolts against the Romans (61 AD: Boadicae) process of colonisation planned towns roads villas and palaces 122-7: Hadrian’s Wall 140-42: Antonine’s Wall 4th c. – regular attacks of the Celtic Picts and Scots from the North 391: Christianity becomes the state religion of the Roman Empire 402-407: withdrawal of Roman legions from Britain

Roman Britain 1: Fishbourne Palace

Roman Britain 2: The Roman Bath in Bath

Roman Britain 3: Gorgon’s (Medusa’s) Head at the Temple of Sulis Minerva (Bath)

Roman Britain 4: Hadrian’s Wall (Tyne-Solway line, 122-27)

Works CitedAldhouse-Green, Stephen. “Great Sites: Paviland Cave.” British

Archaeology (Oct. 2001). http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba61/feat3.shtml

BBC – History. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history

Gelfert, Hans-Dieter: Nagy-Britannia rövid kultúrtörténete. Corvina, Budapest, 2005.

Halliday, F. E. An Illustrated Cultural History of England. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981.

Laing, Lloyd and Jennifer. Art of the Celts. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Wilson, Hugh. „The healing stones: Why was Stonehenge built?” BBC – History. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/healing_stones.shtml.