stoneage

The last Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago. At that time the British Isles formed a peninsula of continental Europe, and the English Channel was a broad plain. As the ice retreated, people and animals from southern Europe travelled across this plain and made their home in the forests that covered Britain. The first arrivals belonged to the earliest stage of civilisation, the Old Stone Age or Palaeolithic.

They moved over the damp green woodland, stone axe in hand, hunting horses, deer, wild ox, and the few remaining reindeer and mammoths. They lived in caves and temporary camps, had no domestic animals and grew no crops. Meanwhile in the Middle East, people began to experiment with methods of controlling their supply of food. This led to the beginning of farming.

BC	Period	Climate	Industry	Artefacts	Construction
12,000	End of Old Stone Age(Palaeolithic)	Cold	Hunting	Axes	Cave burial

11,000	Middle Stone Age(Mesolithic)	Warm and dry	Hunting		Decorated bones
Circa 11000 BC Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) flint axe head

8000	The dog domesticated	Warm and dry
7500 Britain separated from Continent
Stone age 6000 BC core scraper found by Alaskan George
4500	New Stone Age (Early Neolithic)	Warm and dry	Introduction of farming	Pottery , stone axeheads	Monumental tombs, Portal dolmens

4300 Earliest causewayed camps and long barrows
3600	Middle Neolithic	Warm and dry	Stone quarrying	Arrowheads	Passage graves
3500	Earliest henges	Warm and dry	Canadian Rod's 3500 BC Neolitic stone axe
2900	Late Neolithic	Drier and warm	Pottery and grooved ware		Henges, timber circles, early individual graves
2800 Stonehenge first phase
2750 Beaker People arrive
2600 Avebury and Silbury Hill
2300	Early Bronze Age	Drier and warm	Food vessels and urns	Copper mining Great Orme	Standing stones, Ring cairns, stone circles, round barrows
Vancouver Brent's early bronze age flat axe C 2000 BC
2100 Stonehenge bluestone circles
2000 Stonehenge sarsen circle
1550 Stonehenge in present form
C 1250 BC Boston Will's socketed axe - Right, 1250 BC Bronze age socketed axe found by NH Scott
1400	Middle Bronze Age	Drier and warm	bronzes	Gold mining	Kerb cairns
1100	Late Bronze Age	Wet and cold			Secondary burials in barrows
Mass Linda socketed axe head fragment C 1000 BC C1000 BC Bronze Age socketed axe head fragment 37.44mm L 55.91mm W x 13.52 mm T		Bronze Age bronze socketed implement fragment - very worn 10.93g ,29.46 mm L x 15.29mm W C1000 BC Bronze Age socketed implement fragment 35.57 mm L x 21.99 mm W		C1000BC Bronze age socketed axe fragment showing signs of heavy wear 38.63 mm L x 36.10mm W x 12.79mm T found by NH Dave
1000	Earliest hillforts	Wet and cold
Middle Bronze age axe head hoard C 800 BC found by Mass Bruce			Mass Bruce's fragement left and Mass Linda's 2nd socketed axe head fragment C 800 BC

750	Iron Age	Wet and cold			Hillforts

400	Middle Iron Age	Warmer and drier	Thrown pots	Salt trade, iron industry	Standing stones


The Great Torc from Snettisham (see seperate Torc page for more pictures) Iron Age, about 75 BC Found at Ken Hill, Snettisham, Norfolk, England
Gallo-Belgic E stater, c. 56 BC.found by Texas Gary
AD 43 Roman invasion of England