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They did not use coins, nor did they have large settlements to act of political centres for the tribe, and there is no evidence for a dynasty of Dumnonian kings. They were a small, but distinctive group of people who farmed the chalk hills of the Yorkshire Wolds. Early in the 2nd millennium or perhaps even earlier, from about 2300 bce, changes were introduced by the Beaker folk from the Low Countries and the middle Rhine. These people buried their dead in individual graves, often with the drinking vessel that gives their culture its name. The earliest of them still used flint; later groups, however, brought a knowledge of metallurgy and were responsible for the exploitation of gold and copper deposits in Britain and Ireland. They may also have introduced an Indo-European language. Trade was dominated by the chieftains of Wessex, whose rich graves testify to their success. Commerce was far-flung, in one direction to Ireland and Cornwall and in the other to central Europe and the Baltic, whence amber was imported. Amber bead spacers from Wessex have been found in the shaft graves at Mycenae in Greece. It was, perhaps, this prosperity that enabled the Wessex chieftains to construct the remarkable monument of shaped sarsens (large sandstones) known as Stonehenge III. Originally a late Neolithic henge, Stonehenge was uniquely transformed in Beaker times with a circle of large bluestone monoliths transported from southwest Wales. It is estimated that about 2,000mi (3,200km) of paved trunk roads (surfaced roads running between two towns or cities) were constructed and maintained throughout the province. [1] Most of the known network was complete by 180. The primary function of the network was to allow rapid movement of troops and military supplies, but it subsequently provided vital infrastructure for commerce, trade and the transportation of goods.

This period can be sub-divided into an earlier phase (2300 to 1200 BC) and a later one (1200– 700 BC). Beaker pottery appears in England around 2475–2315 cal. BC [41] along with flat axes and burial practices of inhumation. With the revised Stonehenge chronology, this is after the Sarsen Circle and trilithons were erected at Stonehenge. Several regions of origin have been postulated for the Beaker culture, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. [42] Beaker techniques brought to Britain the skill of refining metal. At first the users made items from copper, but from around 2150 BCE smiths had discovered how to smelt bronze (which is much harder than copper) by mixing copper with a small amount of tin. With this discovery, the Bronze Age arrived in Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making. Human footprints have been found preserved on English shores before the end of the last Ice Age ( roughly 11,500 years ago). Then, over time, well-trodden paths developed. The 2011 riots, the European sovereign debt crisis, and Cameron’s veto of changes to the Lisbon Treaty According to the Roman geographer Ptolemy the territory of the Belgae included not only Winchester but also Bath nearby and an as yet unidentified settlement called Ischalis.

9. England and Scotland by Giovanni Camucio – 1575

a b Alberge, Dalya (3 July 2023). "Discovery of up to 25 Mesolithic pits in Bedfordshire astounds archaeologists". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 3 July 2023 . Retrieved 3 June 2023. Both areas were different to each other and were important centres of population and economy in the period c. 400 and 100 BC. The traveller Pytheas, whose own works are lost, was quoted by later classical authors as calling the people "Pretanoi", which is cognate with "Britanni" and is apparently Celtic in origin. The term "Celtic" continues to be used by linguists to describe the family that includes many of the ancient languages of Western Europe and modern British languages such as Welsh without controversy. [52] The dispute essentially revolves around how the word "Celtic" is defined; it is clear from the archaeological and historical record that Iron Age Britain did have much in common with Iron Age Gaul, but there were also many differences. Many leading academics, such as Barry Cunliffe, still use the term to refer to the pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain for want of a better label.

The Beaker people were also skilled at making ornaments from gold, silver and copper, and examples of these have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of central southern Britain.

The kingdom of Ceint (modern Kent) fell in 456 AD. Linnuis (which stood astride modern Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire) was subsumed as early as 500 AD and became the English Kingdom of Lindsey. In 1997, DNA analysis was carried out on a tooth of Cheddar Man, human remains dated to c. 7150 BC found in Gough's Cave at Cheddar Gorge. His mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) belonged to Haplogroup U5. Within modern European populations, U5 is now concentrated in North-East Europe, among members of the Sami people, Finns, and Estonians. This distribution and the age of the haplogroup indicate that individuals belonging to U5 were among the first people to resettle Northern Europe, following the retreat of ice sheets from the Last Glacial Maximum, about 10,000 years ago. It has also been found in other Mesolithic remains in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Russia, [31] Sweden, [32] France [33] and Spain. [34] Members of U5 may have been one of the most common haplogroups in Europe, before the spread of agriculture from the Middle East. [35]

Farming of crops and domestic animals was adopted in Britain around 4500 BC, at least partly because of the need for reliable food sources. brythonic | Origin and meaning of Brythonic by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com . Retrieved 16 June 2020.Munster was a Franciscan monk who took an interest in geography throughout his career. This map of Britain was one of a number of maps he produced, including maps of mainland Europe. He also translated Ptolemy’s ‘Geographica’ and published it with his own illustrations. 7. England with the adjoining kingdom, Scotland by Sebastian Munster – 1554 In the past century or so, enthusiasts have dedicated themselves to finding these roads and mapping their full extent. It is often a passion project: As M.C. Bishop writes in The Secret History of the Roman Roads of Britain, “The study of the roads of Roman Britain has always been the province of amateur scholars, by and large.” Clues to the ancient routes might include a modern road’s design (Roman roads tend to be very straight), historical accounts, legal documents, medieval maps, and fieldwork that reveals actual remains. In more recent years, aerial photos and lidar maps have revealed new examples, too. But because of the hobbyist nature of the pursuit, “Some areas invariably get left out of the system,” writes Bishop. The most complete maps are “as much a record of archaeological endeavours as it is one of Roman strategic thinking or infrastructure planning.”