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62-559: The Insular Celtic languages spread throughout the islands during the Bronze Age or early Iron Age. They are made up of two major groups: Brittonic in the east and Goidelic in the west. While there are records of Continental Celtic languages from the sixth century BC, allowing a confident reconstruction of Proto-Celtic , Insular Celtic languages became attested only during the early first millennium AD. The Insular Celts followed an Ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . Some of

124-599: A "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". There was much less migration into Britain during the Iron Age and so it is likely that Celtic had reached Britain before then. The study also found that lactose tolerance rose swiftly in early Iron Age Britain, a thousand years before it became widespread in mainland Europe, which suggests that milk became a very important foodstuff in Britain at this time. Arras culture The Arras culture

186-411: A coral brooch, a disc pendant (with coral inlay), two bracelets, a gold ring, an amber ring, a bronze ring, a toilet-set and a necklace of green and blue glass beads. The Charioteer's Barrow measured 3.5 metres (11 ft) in diameter and stood 60 centimetres (24 in) high at the time of excavation. Despite the grave containing a chariot burial and grave goods, no skeletal remains were recorded. It

248-556: A date as late as 2000 BC, and others set 2200 BC as the demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC has been called the "Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age" in recognition of the difficulty of exactly defining the boundary. Some archaeologists recognise a British Chalcolithic when copper was used between the 25th and the 22nd centuries BC, but others do not because production and use were on

310-567: A group of local gentry in 1815–1817, including William Watson, the Rev E. W. Stillingfleet, and Barnard Clarkson. Their investigations were detailed, encompassing the excavation of more than a hundred barrows in fields north and south of the Market Weighton to Beverley road, now the A1079. Many of the excavation details have been lost, but detailed recording was undertaken of four barrows with

372-765: A key role in the spread of the Bell Beaker culture to the British Isles around 2500 BC. Genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans (including >150 ancient British genomes) have been analysed. The introduction to the British Isles of Bell Beaker culture came with incoming high levels of steppe-related ancestry , about 90% of the gene pool being replaced within a few hundred years. A 2003 study showed that genetic markers associated with Gaelic names in Ireland and Scotland are also common in parts of west Wales and England, and are similar to

434-771: A largely undifferentiated Insular Celtic was spoken initially), from whence Ireland was colonised only later. Schrijver has pointed out that according to the absolute chronology of sound changes found in Kenneth Jackson's "Language and History in Early Britain", British and Goidelic were still essentially identical as late as the mid-1st century CE apart from the P/Q isogloss, and that there is no archaeological evidence pointing to Celtic presence in Ireland prior to about 100 BCE. The Goidelic branch would develop into Primitive Irish , Old Irish and Middle Irish , and only with

496-435: A major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain in the Bronze Age , during the 500-year period 1300–800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul . During 1000–875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, but not northern Britain. The authors describe this as a "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". There

558-531: A major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early Bronze Age Britain and up to 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool may have been replaced with the coming of a people genetically similar to the Beaker people of the Lower Rhine region (modern Netherlands/central-western Germany), which had a high proportion of steppe ancestry . According to the evolutionary geneticist Ian Barnes , "Following the Beaker spread, there

620-482: A man, orientated on a north-south axis, above the remains of a two-wheeled cart. The wheels were placed above the skull of a horse. The wooden frame of the cart did not survive, but the iron tyres, nave-hoops, iron and copper linch pins did. Terret rings and other harness fittings were also recovered. The Queen's Barrow is the only one of the four named graves that does not include a chariot burial. Small finds from this site are primarily items of personal decoration:

682-735: A mass immigration with a substantial replacement of population, but rather could involve the arrival of a new elite installing their culture and language as a superstrate . A similar process happened as the Gaels installed themselves over the formerly Pictish-speaking populations in Northern Britain. There seems to have been a period of British-Saxon syncretism during the 6th century, with British rulers bearing Saxon names (as in Tewdrig ) and Saxon rulers bearing British names (as in Cerdic ). By

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744-483: A migration) into Southern Great Britain around the 12th century BC. The disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even beyond Europe, as most of the great Near Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced severe difficulties), and the Sea Peoples harried the entire Mediterranean basin around that time. Cremation was adopted as a burial practice, with cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in

806-506: A single wave of immigration of early Celts ( Hallstatt D ) to both Great Britain and Ireland, which however divided into two isolated groups (one in Ireland and one in Great Britain) soon after their arrival, placing the split of Insular Celtic into Goidelic and Brythonic close to 500 BCE. However, this is not the only possible interpretation. In an alternative scenario, the migration could have brought early Celts first to Britain (where

868-510: A small loop or ring to make lashing the two together easier. Groups of unused axes are often found together, suggesting ritual deposits to some, but many archaeologists believe that elite groups collected bronze items and perhaps restricted their use among the wider population. Bronze swords of a graceful "leaf" shape, swelling gently from the handle before coming to a tip, have been found in considerable numbers, along with spear heads and arrow points. Great Britain had large reserves of tin in what

930-668: A small scale. In Ireland, the final Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, but iron metallurgy does not appear until about 550 BC. Around 2500 BC, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain: the Bell Beaker culture . Beaker pottery appears in the Mount Pleasant Phase (2700–2000 BC), along with flat axes and the burial practice of inhumation . People of this period were responsible for building Seahenge , along with

992-461: A square barrow . Skeletal remains in the graves are laid out most commonly on a north-south axis where the head is facing north. The skeletons at Burton Fleming have been identified in three major poses: extended fully, with the legs bent at the knees (sometimes drawn up parallel with the thigh) and with the legs drawn up against the chest. Grave goods include metalwork, ceramics and animal remains. Pig and horse bones are frequently associated with

1054-526: Is a prehistoric cemetery discovered in 2014 on the outskirts of Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. In 2017, the ongoing excavations uncovered a rare chariot burial comprising an Iron Age chariot and two horses dated to about BC 320 to 174. Although chariot burials have been found elsewhere in the UK, the one at Pocklington is the first to have been found with horses also interred. The remains of

1116-550: Is an archaeological culture of the Middle Iron Age in East Yorkshire , England. It takes its name from the cemetery site of Arras, at Arras Farm, ( 53°52′N 0°35′W  /  53.86°N 0.59°W  / 53.86; -0.59 ) near Market Weighton , which was discovered in the 19th century. The site spans three fields, bisected by the main east-west road between Market Weighton and Beverley , and

1178-642: Is arable farmland; little to no remains are visible above ground. The extent of the Arras culture is loosely associated with the Parisi tribe of pre-Roman Britain. The culture is defined by its burial practices, which are uncommon outside East Yorkshire, but are found in continental Europe, and show some similarities with those of the La Tène culture . The inhumations include chariot burials , or burials in square enclosures, or both; in contrast to continental inhumations

1240-464: Is much harder than copper, by mixing copper with a small amount of tin . With that discovery, the Bronze Age began in Great Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making. The bronze axehead, made by casting , was at first similar to its stone predecessors but then developed a socket for the wooden handle to fit into and

1302-544: Is not entirely clear if there was ever a "Common Insular Celtic" language, the alternative being that the Celtic settlement of Ireland and Great Britain was undertaken by separate populations speaking separate Celtic dialects from the beginning. However, the "Insular Celtic hypothesis" has been favoured as the most probable scenario in Celtic historical linguistics since the later 20th century (supported by e.g. Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; and Schrijver 1995). This would point to

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1364-713: Is now Cornwall and Devon in South West England and thus tin mining began. By around 1600 BC, the South-West experiencing a trade boom, as British tin was exported across Europe. Bronze Age Britons were also skilled at making jewellery from gold , as well as occasional objects like the Rillaton Cup and Mold Cape . Many examples have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of Southern Britain, but they are not as frequent as Irish finds. The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in what

1426-604: Is now England were discovered in East Cambridgeshire , where the most important finds were recovered in Isleham (more than 6500 pieces ). The earliest known metalworking building was found at Sigwells, Somerset, England. Several casting mould fragments were fitted to a Wilburton type sword held in Somerset County Museum. They were found in association with cereal grain that has been dated to

1488-474: Is probable that the records have been lost rather than the grave did not contain an inhumation. Iron tyres, nave-loops and other harness fittings were removed from the barrow. The Lady's Barrow contained a female skeleton and a dismantled two-wheeled chariot. Its earthwork measured 4.3 metres (14 ft) in diameter and was 45 centimetres (18 in) high. The inhumation pit was 3.6 metres (12 ft) in diameter and 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) deep. Details of

1550-613: Is termed the Irish Iron Age . The British Iron Age lasted in theory from the first significant use of iron for tools and weapons in Britain to the Romanisation of the southern half of the island. The Romanised culture is termed Roman Britain and is considered to supplant the British Iron Age. The only surviving description of the Iron Age populations of the British Isles is that of Pytheas , who travelled to

1612-483: Is unclear but possibly derive from a pre-Celtic substrate (Gelling). It is thought that by about the 6th century BCE most of the inhabitants of the isles of Ireland and Britain were speaking Celtic languages. A controversial phylogenetic linguistic analysis of 2003 puts the age of Insular Celtic a few centuries earlier, at 2,900 years before present, or slightly earlier than the European Iron Age. It

1674-668: The British Museum . One design element on the Pocklington shield, a scalloped border, "is not comparable to any other Iron Age finds across Europe, adding to its valuable uniqueness", said Paula Ware, managing director at MAP Archaeological Practice Ltd. "The discoveries are set to widen our understanding of the Arras (Middle Iron Age) culture and the dating of artefacts to secure contexts is exceptional," Ware added. The number of non-chariot burials vastly outweighs those with chariots. Such burials are always inhumations within

1736-486: The European Iron Age . In 1946, the Celtic scholar T. F. O'Rahilly published his influential model of the early history of Ireland , which postulated four separate waves of Celtic invaders, spanning most of the Iron Age (700 to 100 BCE). However, the archaeological evidence for these waves of invaders proved elusive. Later research indicated that the culture may have developed gradually and continuously between

1798-464: The Hallstatt culture . In 2021, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the 500-year period from 1300 to 800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul and had higher levels of Early European Farmers ancestry. From 1000 to 875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, which made up around half

1860-748: The Old North ); and the Goidelic-speaking Irish (in Ireland), Scots (in Scotland) and Manx (on the Isle of Man ). in southern Scotland and northern England, and the remnants of the Pictish people in northern Scotland. In older theories, the arrival of Celts , defined as speakers of Celtic languages , which derive from a Proto-Celtic language , roughly coincided with the beginning of

1922-510: The 12th century BC by carbon dating . The rich Wessex culture developed in southern Great Britain during that time. The weather, previously warm and dry, became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, which forced the population away from easily-defended sites in the hills and into the fertile valleys . Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. The Deverel-Rimbury culture began to emerge during

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1984-504: The 8th century. Northern Britain (north of Hadrian's Wall ) and Ireland would essentially remain in the prehistoric period until after the end of the Roman period. The "protohistoric" period of Ireland can be argued to begin around 400 CE, due to cultural diffusion from Roman Britain, importing writing ( ogham , reflecting the earliest records of Primitive Irish ) and Christianity . The populations north of Roman Britain are summarized under

2046-547: The Arras culture, often with chariot burials include: Cawthorne Camps , Pexton Moor , Seamer , Hunmanby , Burton Fleming , Danes Graves , Garton , Wetwang , Middleton on the Wolds , Beverley and Hornsea . The small number of chariot burials, even within the Arras culture, suggests that people buried with chariots were a local elite and this is supported by high-quality metalwork and imported materials (such as coral ) in grave goods . The Pocklington Iron Age burial ground

2108-471: The Bronze Age, with smaller tombs often dug into the primary mounds. There has been debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the "Beaker people" were a race of people that migrated to Britain en masse from the continent or whether a Beaker cultural "package" of goods and behaviour, which eventually spread across most of Western Europe, diffused to Britain's existing inhabitants through trade across tribal boundaries. However one recent study (2017) suggests

2170-693: The Celts and the indigenous populations. Similarly in Ireland, little archaeological evidence was found for large intrusive groups of Celtic immigrants, suggesting to archaeologists, such as Colin Renfrew , that the native late Bronze Age inhabitants gradually absorbed European Celtic influences and language. In the 1970s, a "continuity model" was popularized by Colin Burgess in his book The Age of Stonehenge , which theorised that Celtic culture in Great Britain "emerged" rather than resulted from invasion, and that

2232-566: The Celts were not invading aliens, but the descendants of, or culturally influenced by, figures such as the Amesbury Archer , whose burial included clear continental connections. The archaeological evidence is of substantial cultural continuity through the 1st millennium BCE, although with a significant overlay of selectively adopted elements of the "Celtic" La Tène culture from the 4th century BCE onwards. There are claims of continental-style states appearing in southern England close to

2294-863: The Isles by Bryan Sykes and The Origins of the British: a Genetic Detective Story by Stephen Oppenheimer , discuss genetic evidence for the prehistoric settlement of the British Isles , concluding that while there is evidence for a series of migrations from the Iberian Peninsula during the Mesolithic and, to a lesser extent, the Neolithic eras, there is comparatively little trace of any Iron Age migration. Later genetic studies found evidence for some Late Iron Age migration of Celtic ( La Tène ) people to Britain and on to north-east Ireland. In 2021,

2356-687: The King's Barrow, the Queen's Barrow and the Charioteer's Barrow are accessioned to the Yorkshire Museum and the Lady's Barrow to the British Museum . Although little remained of the earthwork at the time of excavation, the barrow measured 8 metres (26 ft) in diameter and covered a circular grave 3.5 metres (11 ft) in diameter and 45 centimetres (18 in) deep It contained the body of

2418-485: The Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury , Stonehenge , Silbury Hill and Must Farm . That has been described as a time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe". There is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give

2480-436: The Neolithic era, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead. The 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual barrows , also commonly known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as tumuli, or sometimes in cists covered with cairns . They were often buried with a beaker alongside the body. However, even though customs changed, barrows and burial mounds continued to be used during

2542-433: The ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in that area, but not in northern Britain. The "evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between Britain and mainland Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups". The authors describe this as

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2604-507: The archaeological record. According to John T. Koch and others, the Celtic languages developed during the Late Bronze Age period in an intensely-trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age , which included Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal, but that stands in contrast to the more generally-accepted view that the Celtic languages developed earlier than that, with some cultural practices developing in

2666-499: The burials. The original excavations by William Watson uncovered more than 100 square- barrows , square earthworks several metres long containing a single inhumation grave often accompanied by grave-goods. Material uncovered in the graves is of particularly high quality and is often unique in Iron Age Britain and includes copper-alloys, iron , animal bone, coral , jet and enamel. Of the four barrows, most material from

2728-412: The cemeteries were crowded, not extended, and the chariots typically disassembled. The burials have been dated from the latter part of the 1st millennium BC to the Roman conquest (about 70 AD). The burial goods and chariot designs were primarily British in style, not continental. Many of the archaeological finds are in the Yorkshire Museum and the British Museum . The site was first investigated by

2790-643: The continent. However, while in Gaul, Roman influence was sufficient to almost wholly replace the Gaulish language with Vulgar Latin , this was nowhere near the case in Roman Britain. Although a British Latin dialect was presumably spoken in the population centres of Roman Britain, it did not become influential enough to displace British dialects spoken throughout the country. There did presumably remain pockets of Romance-speaking populations in Britain as late as

2852-427: The earlier Neolithic people and cultural change was significant. Many of the early henge sites seem to have been adopted by the newcomers. Furthermore, a fundamentally different approach to burying the dead began. In contrast to the Neolithic practice of communal burials, the Bronze Age society undergoes an apparent shift towards focusing on to the individual, rather on the ancestors as a collective. For example, in

2914-648: The end of the Dark Ages, around the 8th century, the Insular Celtic peoples had become the bearers of the Gaelic and Welsh cultures of the historical Gaelic Ireland and Medieval Wales . Bronze Age Britain Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c.  2500–2000 BC until c.  800 BC . Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it

2976-638: The end of the period, possibly reflecting in part immigration by élites from various Gallic states, such as those of the Belgae . Evidence of chariot burials in England begins about 300 BC and is mostly confined to the Arras culture associated with the Parisii . Remnants of pre-Celtic languages may remain in the names of some geographical features, such as the rivers Clyde , Tamar and Thames , whose etymology

3038-611: The genetic markers of the Basque people and most different from north Germanic people. This similarity supported earlier findings in suggesting a large pre-Celtic genetic ancestry, likely going back to the original settlement of the Upper Paleolithic (later debunked). The authors suggest, therefore, that Celtic culture and language may have been imported to Britain at the beginning of the Iron Age by cultural contact , not "mass invasions". In 2006, two popular books, The Blood of

3100-611: The historical (medieval) expansion of the Gaels would it split into the modern Gaelic languages ( Modern Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Manx ). Common Brythonic, on the other hand, split into two branches, British and Pritenic as a consequence of the Roman invasion of Britain in the 1st century. By the 8th century, Pritenic had developed into Pictish (which would be extinct during the 9th century or so), and British had split into Old Welsh and Old Cornish . Migration has been shown to play

3162-431: The later phases of Stonehenge . Silbury Hill was also built in the early Beaker period. Movement of continental Europeans brought new people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicates that at least some of the new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland . The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from

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3224-512: The presumed driver, most likely a high-status individual, also were found, along with iron fragments from the chariot's body. The wooden elements of the chariot had rotted away, but had mostly been preserved as stains in the ground. One wheel had been destroyed, probably by ploughing. A bronze shield in the grave was exceptionally well preserved. The shield's boss bears a resemblance to the Wandsworth shield boss (circa BC 350 to 150), owned by

3286-460: The region in about 325 BCE. The earliest tribal names on record date to the 1st century CE ( Ptolemy , Caesar ; to some extent coinage ), representing the situation at the moment of Roman conquest. Roman Britain existed for about four centuries, from the mid 1st to the mid 5th century. This led to the formation of a syncretized Romano-British culture in the southern part of Great Britain, comparable in some aspects to Gallo-Roman culture on

3348-582: The richest grave goods . They were named the King's Barrow, the Queen's Barrow, the Lady's Barrow and the Charioteer's Barrow by the excavators. Work in 1850 by John Thurnam of the Yorkshire Antiquarian Club led to further investigations of these barrows; Thurnam published a report detailing the human remains from his excavation. The site of the Arras cemetery is about 200 metres (220 yd) long and some 100 barrows were identified, four of which contained chariot burials. The name of

3410-647: The second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400–1100 BC) to exploit the wetter conditions. Cornwall was a major source of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the Great Orme mine in Northern Wales . Social groups appear to have been tribal, but growing complexity and hierarchies became apparent. There is evidence of a relatively large-scale disruption of cultural patterns (see Late Bronze Age collapse ), which some scholars think may indicate an invasion (or at least

3472-497: The site lends itself to the culture, archaeologically based around chariot burials, across North and East Yorkshire . Other sites that are part of the Arras culture are so named because of the prevalence of cart-burials (two wheels) and / or wagon-burials (four wheels) or small finds similar to those from Arras which are otherwise rare or unique in the British Iron Age . Other sites of similar La Tène period burials within

3534-411: The southern British tribes had strong links with mainland Europe, especially Gaul and Belgica , and minted their own coins . The Roman Empire conquered most of Britain in the 1st century AD, and a Romano-British culture emerged in the southeast. The Britons and Picts in the north, and the Gaels of Ireland, remained outside the empire. During the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 400s, there

3596-614: The term Caledonians (the ancestors of the Picts of later centuries). Very little is known about them other than they posed a constant military threat to the Roman border. With the Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement of Great Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, the British languages were gradually marginalised to the western parts of the island, to what is now Wales and Cornwall . The transition may not necessarily present itself as

3658-646: Was a population in Britain that for the first time had ancestry and skin and eye pigmentation similar to Britons today". Several regions of origin have been postulated for the Beaker culture , notably the Iberian Peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. Part of the Beaker culture brought the skill of refining metal to Great Britain. At first, they made items from copper , but from around 2150 BC , smiths had discovered how to make bronze , which

3720-544: Was much less inward migration during the Iron Age, so it is likely that Celtic reached Britain before then. Barry Cunliffe suggests that a branch of Celtic was already being spoken in Britain, and that the Bronze Age migration introduced the Brittonic branch. The British Iron Age is a conventional name in the archaeology of Great Britain , typically excluding prehistoric Ireland , which had an independent Iron Age culture of its own. The parallel phase of Irish archaeology

3782-438: Was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain . Being categorised as the Bronze Age , it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools. Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture . During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from

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3844-469: Was significant Anglo-Saxon settlement of eastern and southern Britain, and some Gaelic settlement of its western coast. During this time, some Britons migrated to the Armorican peninsula, where their culture became dominant. Meanwhile, much of northern Britain ( Scotland ) became Gaelic. By the 10th century, the Insular Celts had diversified into the Brittonic-speaking Welsh (in Wales ), Cornish (in Cornwall ), Bretons (in Brittany) and Cumbrians (in

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