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Ancient Britain

Through long Ice Ages small bands of hunter gatherers lived largely nomadic lives in Europe. During relatively warmer interglacial times some small groups made their way into what is now the southern area of Britain, crossing the land bridge from the continent. The oldest pre-modern human remains ever found in Britain are about 500 000 years old and were discovered in Boxgrove, Sussex. At Hengistbury Head in Dorset there is evidence of intermittent human habitation stretching back over 100 000 years. Hengistbury Head, now looking out over the Solent was once a hill next to a river. When the climate was warm enough, nomadic hunting tribes probably camped here near routes taken by migrating animals moving south to the continent. The south west of England also provides evidence of human habitation during the Ice Ages . In Kent's Cavern on the western side of the Ilsham Valley on the south coast, archeological evidence reveals intermittent human habitation in warm periods between ice ages. Huge amounts of bear remains suggest that the hunters of those times crept into caves to find the lairs of animals hibernating their way through the coldest weather. Sediments found at Tornewton Cave, a few miles inland from Kent's Cavern tell the story of the later episodes of the Ice Age. A layer of stalagmites indicates a cool temperate climate. Then comes a layer of frost shattered stalactites indicating very cold conditions. With the return of slightly warmer temperatures the cave was taken over by hyenas, before bitterly cold conditions returned once again. This was the final Devensian glaciation, 18000 - 15000 years ago. Human activity then returned to the cave at the end of this cold period. Reindeer remains indicate that the cave's occupants were nomadic reindeer hunters. Into more relatively recent times, the oldest modern human remains in Britain were discovered in Sun Hole in the Mendips, Creswell in Derbyshire, and Gough's Cave, Cheddar. These remains range from 9000 years old for those of Gough's cave, to 12 500 for those at Sun Hole. These people lived during a time of great change. About 12 000 years ago the climate in Britain began to warm dramatically, temperatures reaching their peak about 6500 years ago, the English Channel opening up soon after this.

Woodland at Ebernoe Common

With the increase in temperatures settlement became more widespread, and extended into Scotland. At this point Britain was covered in a vast forest, the Wildwood, which had slowly covered the tundra extending down as far south as Bordeaux. From 8000 to 4000 years ago huge areas of the forest were burned off by settlers. By 500BC half of England had been cleared. By the eighteenth century Samuel Johnson was travelling through Scotland and reflecting on the compete denudation of a desolate landscape: In 1775 Johnson wrote: "The Lowlands of Scotland had once undoubtedly an equal portion of woods with other countries. Forests are everywhere gradually diminished, as architecture and cultivation prevail by the increase of people and the introduction of arts. But I believe few regions have been denuded like this, where many centuries must have passed in waste without the least thought of future supply." (A Journey To The Western Isles Of Scotland, Chapter 3) Today only 1% of the Wildwood remains, and even this has been influenced by management. Oliver Rackham in History of the Countryside thinks the last of the true Wildwood was cut down in the Forest of Dean in the thirteenth century. The closest we can get to the Wildwood now are the forests at Glentrool in Scotland, Bow Hill in Sussex, Ebernoe Common in Sussex, Binswood in Hampshire, and some of the box woodland at Box Hill in Surrey. Place names also give an echo of the Wildwood. Names containing "-ley", "-hurst" or "-field" indicate a settlement originally in a clearing or next to the wood. Before the large scale clearing of the Wildwood people used the chalk ridges of what is now southern England to move about. A path network grew up, and the course of a number of these ancient long distance path survives.

Avebury

The clearing of the forest represented a desperate attempt to obtain land for farming. During the ice ages people lived largely as hunter gatherers, and a square mile of land could only support about four individuals. During the Neolithic period, between ten and twelve thousand years ago, people began farming, and this agricultural revolution allowed about twenty five people to survive on a similar area of land. But even with this huge improvement there was still competition for the best land, particularly as early agricultural methods tended not to replenish soil. From about 2500BC a period of relative prosperity for the Neolithic farmers of Britain came to an end. Archeological investigation shows that formerly cultivated land in Norfolk, Suffolk and Wessex became infested with weeds and scrub during this time. It is possible that the preceding success in agriculture had exhausted the soil. In the troubled centuries that followed it seems two measures were taken. Some people found a hilltop and fortified it, using huge circular banks and ditches. The outlines of these hill forts can still be seen on hills in southern England today. Maiden Castle in Dorset is one of the best examples. An alternative was to build what I think of as a representational fort. These stylised fortiifications consisted of huge monuments, using the same circular banks and ditches seen in the hilltop forts, later with the addition of standing stones. Alternatively people built a representation of a hill itself, as at Silbury Hill near Avebury. Though I have not read of this view anywhere, it seems to me that these places were used to seek a kind of spiritual security. In a search forspiritualsecurity these saced sites used all the features of defensive structures built in search of physical security. They may also have had an astrological role, with certain features of the sites aligned to the sun, or sometimes the moon. The two most famous sites of this kind, Stonehenge and Avebury date to between 3000BC and 1500BC Perhaps you could view these places as fortresses against the Fates. Even today churches show elements of castle design, with towers and battlements a standard feature of church architecture.

Life continued with people struggling to come up with new inventive ways to control the world. Unfortunately their inventions continued to bring them renewed insecurity. As metal working improved into the Bronze Age, between 2100BC and 700BC, so did weapons. Hill forts were getting bigger, and monument building continued. The Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre near Peterborough has a remarkable excavation of a vast wooden monument preserved in waterlogged fenland soil from this time. Up until the Bronze Age the highland areas of the south west, Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and Exmoor were grassland, and were relatively heavily populated. Then a cooling climate caused a layer of peat to slowly spread across the moors The ancient settlements were progressively abandoned, leaving one of the best preserved prehistoric landscapes in Europe. This area has many hill forts, along with numerous mysterious circles and lines of trench, earth bank and standing stones.

Maiden Castle

Around 500BC iron became more widely used, replacing bronze. Once again there was a leap forward in the technology of tools. On the downside there was another leap forward in the technology of weapons, with a corresponding upsurge in fear and insecurity. This led to the building of over 3000 hill forts in the early centuries of the first millennium. Maiden Castle in Dorset was extended during this period to the huge fortification we see today.

Britain entered literate and recorded history in 325BC when Mediterranean adventurers came to the islands in search of tin. Pytheas of Marseilles made the trip in 325BC, landing in Cornwall. He wrote an account of his journey, and called Britain "the Tin Islands". It took a visitor to finally put Britain down on paper since the native Celts had an oral tradition and opposed writing.

For the most comprehensive collection of artifacts relating to ancient Britain, go to the British Museum in Bloomsbury, London. Here you will able to see spectacular objects from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. My favorite objects are the sheet bronze cauldrons found at Battersea, dating to between 800 and 650BC.