The origin of British culture

1. The originofBritish culture Britain’s Prehistory Liceo Scientifico “A. Einstein” Classe 3^A A.S 2012/2013 Lavoro realizzato da: Simionato Eleonora e Soranzo Nicoletta

2. From Neolithic to Bronze Age 8000 - 800 BC • The introduction of farming was one of the biggest changes in human history • Over the millennia there were a lot of climate change: after the latest ice age Britain became an island • They descendants of Homo Sapiens

3. The introduction of farming was the result of a huge migration: it wasn’t a rapid change • They lived by fishing, hunting and collecting fruit, nuts, berries, etc. • The Late Bronze Age (1250-800 BC) is marked by the arrival of new styles of metalwork and pottery, but otherwise life continued much as before

4. Iron Age, 800 BC - AD 43 • The Iron Age saw the gradual introduction of iron working technology • Studies of Iron Age tended to see foreign invasions • The most visible remains are hill forts • Bog bodies: show evidence of a violent death, and possible ritual or sacrificial killing • Roman influence the western Mediterranean and southern France

5. Stonehenge and Stone Age life • Stonehenge is a circular arrangement of standing stones built in prehistoric times and located near Salisbury • It was a place of worship and ritual • Stonehenge offered a way to establish calendar dates when no other method existed • Stonehenge attracted healers and medicine men • Society in 2500 BC was mobile

6. People ofBritain: tribes • Before Roman times, 'Britain' was just a geographical entity and had no political meaning and no single cultural identity • The first modern humans were hunter-gatherers • There were a lot of different societies and culture

7. The Celts probably came from Central Europe and were technically advanced • Almost everyone in Britannia was legally and culturally 'Roman‘ • Most of Britannia was taken over by 'Germanic' kingdoms • Britain has always been home to multiple peoples.

8. Death and Burial • Early Bronze Age there were over 2,500 years older than the Roman graves • Some of the objects hint how he was dressed or adorned when he was buried • Bronze Age Britons were practising the art of mummification at the same time as 'mummy culture' was in full swing in Pharaonic Egypt • Mummies were important ancestral figures

9. Life in IronAge • The changes and technological innovations that occurred were every bit as evolutionary as those that have occurred in the last 800 years • Iron Age society was primarily agricultural and animals aided the family • They had individual houses of stone with garden plots, clustered along a street • The religious festivals would have followed the same seasonal pattern, based around the agricultural year

10. The traditions may have been passed down orally, and written at this later date. • There were special deposits may have been the result of rituals or ceremonies, including feasts, possibly from these seasonal festivals. • The druids were the Celts' priests, responsible for all sorts of religious ceremonies • It was an essentially rural world of farms and villages, one that had no economic, political or religious need to build palaces, cities, major tombs or ceremonial sites such as stone circles