Ancient Britain Facts & Worksheets

Let’s know more about Ancient Britain!

Ancient Britain was a landmass located in the northwest of Europe 800,000 years ago, before it turned into an island. Due to inundation, it was cut off from the mainland around 6000 BCE. The region’s agricultural industry started to grow, promoting the emergence of civilisation around 4200 BCE. The earliest evidence of humans in the area is dated to between 800,000 and 700,000 years ago, with Neanderthals appearing c.400,000 years ago and Homo sapiens c.12,000 years ago.

PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

• Britain has been inhabited by several human species on and off for about a million years. Happisburgh, on the coast of Norfolk, has the earliest signs of human activity from roughly 900,000 years ago, including stone tools and footprints that were likely formed by Homo antecedent. 

STONE AGE

Palaeolithic

• Britain’s oldest known human occupancy is during the Palaeolithic or the Old Stone Age. The environment underwent several changes during this extensive period, including various glacial and interglacial periods that significantly impacted local human settlement.
• Giving dates for this long-ago era is challenging and controversial. During this period, the area was inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers who travelled around Northern Europe in search of animal herds or who subsisted on fishing.
• A species of Homo existed in what is now Britain at least 814,000 years ago, according to bones and flint tools unearthed in coastal sediments close to Happisburgh, Norfolk, and Pakefield, Suffolk. During this period, a large land bridge known as Doggerland, which connected Southern and Eastern Britain to continental Europe, allowed people to travel freely. Sites like Boxgrove in Sussex are examples of the Homo heidelbergensis species’ later appearance in the archaeological record roughly 500,000 years ago. These prehistoric humans hunted the enormous native mammals of the time and manufactured Acheulean flint implements or hand axes.
• Britain was only sporadically populated, and even under occupation, reproduction may have lagged behind replacement level, necessitating immigration from elsewhere to sustain numbers.
• There is no evidence of human habitation in Britain between approximately 180,000 and 60,000 years ago. This lack of evidence is likely the result of Britain’s isolation as an island.

What are the three sub periods of the Palaeolithic Age?

• During marine isotope stage 3, a period during the last glacial era, Britain was inhabited by Neanderthals. Seasonal movement between Britain and the continent is doubtful because Britain has its own distinctive variant of late Neanderthal hand axe, the bout-coupé. However, the main occupation may have been in the now-submerged region of Doggerland, with summer migrations to Britain in warmer periods.

Mesolithic

• The Holocene, which began around 9700 BCE and came after the Younger Dryas, was when Ahrensburgian hunter-gatherers briefly occupied the area, although this was short-lived due to the ultimate temperature drop that occurred between 9400 and 9200 BCE. Britain has been occupied ever since the Mesolithic period, which began around 9000 BCE.
• The Mendips, Star Carr in Yorkshire, and Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides are among the British Mesolithic sites. During excavations at Howick in Northumberland, remains of a sizable circular structure were found. It is thought to be a house and dates to about 7600 BCE. At Deepcar in Sheffield, there is a structure that dates back to 8500 BCE. 
• Despite the abundance of the Mesolithic environment, local resource depletion eventually resulted from expanding populations and ancient Britons’ successful exploitation of it. 
• Mesolithic hunting is shown by the remains of an elk from that time period that were discovered trapped in a bog near Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. The elk had been wounded by hunters and had managed to flee three times.

  

• There are a few Neolithic structures that sit on top of Mesolithic sites, but there is little evidence of continuity. Around 4500 BCE, farming of domesticated animals and crops was introduced to Britain, at least in part due to the necessity for dependable food sources. 

Neolithic

• Domestication of plants and animals took place during the Neolithic period, but the introduction of farming and a sedentary lifestyle at this time are gradually giving way to a more nuanced understanding of the shifts and continuities in practices that can be seen from the Mesolithic period onwards.
• In any case, the so-called Neolithic Revolution brought about a more settled way of life and eventually caused civilisations to be split into several groups of farmers, artisans and leaders.
• Early Neolithic long barrows, which were used for communal burial, and the first causewayed enclosures – structures that have counterparts on the continent – were the first earthwork sites built in Britain. Although no longhouse villages have been discovered in Britain, only individual examples, the former may be descended from the longhouse. However, the stone-built homes in Orkney, like those at Skara Brae, are signs of a nucleated British colony.

BRONZE AGE

• There are two phases to this time period: an earlier phase and a later one. In England, beaker pottery first appears between 2475 and 2315 BCE. The art of metal reworking was introduced to Britain by beaker methods. The first things produced were made of copper, but starting approximately 2150 BCE, smiths learnt how to create bronze, which is much tougher than copper, by combining copper with a small amount of tin. This discovery marked the beginning of the Bronze Age in Britain. Over the following millennia, metal progressively took the place of stone as the primary material for creating tools and weapons.
• Britons who lived during the early Bronze Age interred their deceased in barrows, which are earthen mounds, frequently with a beaker next to them.
• Later in the time period, cremation was adopted as a method of interment, and graveyards with urns containing the remains of cremated people as well as the depositing of metal artefacts like daggers can be found in the archaeological record. 
• Additionally, several notable prehistoric sites like Seahenge and the latter phases of Stonehenge were built in great part by people of this era.

IRON AGE

• The prehistoric and protohistoric stages of the Iron Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands are typically referred to as the British Iron Age, with the exception of prehistoric Ireland, which had an independent Iron Age culture of its own. This term is commonly used in the archaeology of Great Britain. The first significant use of iron for tools and weapons in Britain occurred during the British Bronze Age, and in principle, the British Iron Age lasted until the southern half of the island was governed by Romans. The British Iron Age was said to have been replaced by the Romanised culture, sometimes known as Roman Britain.
• Popular perception frequently holds that the Indigenous people residing in Britain during the period belonged to a broadly Celtic civilisation. However, this has come under scrutiny in recent years. Celtic is, at the very least, a linguistic term without any reference to a long-lasting cultural bond that bound Gaul to the British Isles during the Iron Age. 
• The group of languages referred to as Celtic languages undoubtedly includes the Brittonic languages, which were widely spoken in Britain at the time, along with others like the Goidelic and Gaulish languages of bordering Ireland and Gaul, respectively. The assumption that certain cultural traits seen in one Celtic-speaking society may be applied to the others is not valid.

MEDITERRANEAN CONTACT

• As early as 450 BCE, the Phoenicians of Carthage had contact with the inhabitants of Britain. When an expedition commanded by a Carthaginian navigator and explorer named Himilco made their way there in 450 BCE, the Phoenicians of Carthage traded for tin, which was needed to make bronze. The Phoenicians conducted trade with the inhabitants of the coast and were the first to inform the Greeks, with whom they also conducted trade, of events in Britain.
• Pytheas was the first to call the island Britain (Bretannike), which means ‘painted’ and alludes to the practice of people painting or tattooing themselves, when he surveyed the British shoreline in 325 BCE. He gave them the collective name Britons, Pritani, which later became Britanni.

  

• These forebears included the Atrebates and Catuvellauni, who would both play important roles in Britain’s destiny, as well as the Iceni and many more tribes through their interactions and relationships with Rome. There were also more than 20 other tribes that made up Britain.

TRIBES OF ANCIENT BRITAIN

01: Caledones

02: Taexali

03: Carvetii

04: Venicones

05: Epidii

06: Damnonii

07: Novantae

08: Selgovae

09: Votadini

10: Brigantes

11: Parisi

12: Cornovii

13: Deceangli

14: Ordovices

15: Corieltauvi

16: Iceni

17: Demetae

18: Catuvellauni

19: Silures

20: Dubunni

21: Dumnonii

22: Durotriges

23: Belgae

24: Atrebates

25: Regni

26: Cantiaci

27: Trinovantes

ROMAN BRITAIN

• Julius Caesar, a Roman dictator, crossing the Channel from Gaul in 55 BCE signalled the direct contact of Romans to Britons. The Romans had heard about Britain from at least the fourth century BCE through Phoenician and Greek traders. Caesar withdrew from the exploration because he was unprepared for any significant confrontations due to the lack of siege engines and damage to his ships from the crossing. When he came back in 54 BCE, he made diplomatic ties with several of the Indigenous people, particularly the Atrebates and Catuvellauni.
• Rome gave assistance to the Indigenous peoples in their disputes with other Indigenous peoples in exchange for trading privileges, but the Roman government had little actual concern for their welfare and only cared about preserving the balance of power required for trade. Augustus, the Roman Emperor, thought of sending expeditions to invade Britain and take its resources, but he never carried out his plans.
• When Caratacus, King of the Catuvellauni, beat Verica, King of the Atrebates, the former fled to Britain and begged Rome for help. This incident occurred in early 40 CE. 
• The Roman Emperor Claudius, appreciating the value of Augustus’ earlier plans and using Verica as a justification, sent a sizable invasion force against Britain in 43 CE under the command of the general Aulus Plautius. Augustus had assembled a force to send against the Atrebates but had failed to launch it.
• At the Battle of Medway, the Catuvellauni encountered the invading force in southern Britain, perhaps close to modern-day Kent, and were routed.
• Although Caratacus frequently rallied the Indigenous peoples against the Roman invaders until his defeat and captivity in 51 CE, the road to victory was not easy. While other tribes continued to oppose Rome, Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, led the most well-known uprising in 60/61 CE, during Nero’s rule.
• The wife of the Roman ally Iceni king Prasutagus, who divided his estate between his daughters and Nero, was Boudicca. Rome disregarded his last wishes when he passed away, and when Boudicca protested, she was flogged and her two daughters were sexually assaulted. 
• In cities like Londinium, which became the administrative capital, the British adopted Roman dress, culture and language and supported Roman projects like roads, aqueducts, public parks and buildings, temples, forums, arenas and Roman baths, especially those who wanted to profit from bureaucratic positions in Roman trade and government.
• Even though it was an island with ports along the coast and was therefore open to attacks by Saxon pirates as well as Frankish ships sailing from Gaul over the English Channel, the Roman province of Britain eventually became a crucial source of resources for the Roman Empire. Rome’s commitment to maintain Britain was eroded by Saxon and Frankish maritime assaults and incursions by the northern Picts. 
• As a result, once Alaric of the Visigoths captured Rome in 410 CE, Rome started to concentrate its resources closer to home. Roman military presence in Britain had already been reduced by Emperor Valentinian I, but in 410 CE, Emperor Honorius totally withdrew the Roman troops from the island, assuring the British governors that they should now be able to defend themselves.

ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN

• The migration of the Saxons, who had already established permanent colonies in Britain by 429 CE, filled the hole left by the Romans. These people, who were actually a mixed population of Saxons, Angles and Jutes, came to be known as Anglo-Saxons to distinguish themselves from those who stayed on the continent.

  

• The historian Gildas described their arrival in Britain as a massive invasion. Bede and Nennius supported this account, and following historians repeated it. According to the most famous version of this event, the Britons appealed to Rome for military assistance against incursions by the Picts, and when they were assured no help was coming, they asked the Saxons – with their allies of the Angles and Jutes – to come as mercenaries. After disposing of the Picts, the Anglo-Saxon soldiers turned on their subjects and ruled them until they were overthrown at the Battle of Badon Hill by the British champion Ambrosius Aurelianus. 
• This story was embellished by Bede and Nennius, and for centuries it was accepted as historical fact (with Nennius adding the detail that the war chief Arthur was the hero of Badon Hill, afterwards elaborated by others as King Arthur of the Britons). 
• However, contemporary study has disproved this account of history, and it is now known that the Anglo-Saxons immigrated to Britain peacefully and coexisted with the native population. The Saxon pirate raids that persisted even after the Anglo-Saxons had established themselves, most likely from a base in Kent, may have served as inspiration for the invasion story.
• From Kent, the new arrivals spread in different directions, joining previously established communities and participating in trade, as well as founding their own settlements, which came to be known as Essex (East Saxons), East Anglia, Sussex (South Saxons), Mercia (with Middlesex – Middle Saxons – emerging later as part of Essex) and Wessex (West Saxons).
• The Saxon chief Cerdic, who led an invading force into Britain in 495 CE and conquered the Welsh and Britons in battle, is credited with founding Wessex. 
• Cerdic is still referred to as a Saxon, although contemporary research contends that he may have been a British earl who had lost his realm, fled to the Saxons and picked up their language, then came back with a sizable Saxon army to recapture what had been taken from him. 
• Whoever he may have been, Cerdic’s reputation as a great warrior-king was so impressive that later genealogies of the English monarchy claimed him as their ancestor, and only his descendants could legitimately claim kingship of Wessex up through and after the reign of Alfred the Great, the first Anglo-Saxon king to unite the land against the threat of the Viking raids in Britain.