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79-650: The British Iron Age followed the British Bronze Age and 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 tribes living in Britain during this time are often popularly considered to be part of

158-543: 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. Atlantic Europe Atlantic Europe

237-617: 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 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

316-595: A bit older and therefore a bit more contemporary, but Ptolemy gives the most detail and the least theory. Attempts to understand the human behaviour of the period have traditionally focused on the geographic position of the islands and their landscape , along with the channels of influence coming from Continental Europe . During the later Bronze Age , there are indications of new ideas influencing land use and settlement . Extensive field systems , now called Celtic fields , were being set out, and settlements were becoming more permanent and focused on better exploitation of

395-563: A broadly- Celtic culture, but in recent years, that has been disputed. At a minimum, "Celtic" is a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age. The Brittonic languages , which were widely spoken in Britain at this time (as well as others including the Goidelic and Gaulish languages of neighbouring Ireland and Gaul, respectively), certainly belong to

474-674: A desire to increase control over wide areas. By the 8th century BC, there is increasing evidence of Great Britain becoming closely tied to Continental Europe, especially in Southern and Eastern Britain. New weapon types appeared with clear parallels to those on the Continent, such as the Carp's tongue sword , complex examples of which are found all over Atlantic Europe . Phoenician traders probably began visiting Great Britain in search of minerals around this time and brought with them goods from

553-437: A division between one group of gods relating to masculinity, the sky and individual tribes and a second group of goddesses relating to associations with fertility, the earth and a universality that transcended tribal differences. Wells and springs had female, divine links exemplified by the goddess Sulis worshipped at Bath . In Tacitus 's Agricola (2.21), he notes the similarity between both religious and ritual practices of

632-531: 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

711-483: 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

790-433: A pan-Atlantic European culture. This idea would be further developed from the 1950s onwards by authors such as P. Flatrès, Emyr Estyn Evans , A. Bouhier, Meynier, J. García Fernández, Patrick O'Flanagan , Richard Bradley , Barry Cunliffe , Carlos Ferrás Sexto and Xoán Paredes , among others. O'Flanagan, based on the theories of Pedrayo and Ribeiro, states that Atlantic Europe is a cultural reality that stretches along

869-497: A religious character to the subjects. Overall, the traditional view is that religion was practiced in natural settings in the open air. Gildas mentions "those diabolical idols of my country, which almost surpassed in number those of Egypt, and of which we still see some mouldering away within or without the deserted temples, with stiff and deformed features as was customary". Sites such as at Hayling Island , in Hampshire , and

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948-565: A ritual aspect. Caesar's texts state that the priests of Britain were Druids , a religious elite with considerable holy and secular powers. Great Britain appears to have been the seat of the Druidic religion, and Tacitus's account of the later raid on Anglesey led by Suetonius Paulinus gives some indication of its nature. No archaeological evidence survives of Druidry, but a number of burials made with ritual trappings and found in Kent may suggest

1027-423: A significant investment in pre-Roman Britain, as they could be used as a source of portable wealth and to provide useful domestic by-products such as milk, cheese and leather. In the later Iron Age, an apparent shift is visible, revealing a change in dominance from cattle rearing to that of sheep. Economically, sheep are significantly less labour-intensive, requiring fewer people per animal. Cattle and sheep dominate

1106-510: 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

1185-692: Is a geographical term for the western portion of Europe which borders the Atlantic Ocean . The term may refer to the idea of Atlantic Europe as a cultural unit and/or as a biogeographical region . It comprises the British Isles ( Great Britain and Ireland ), Iceland , Belgium , the Netherlands , the central and northern regions of Portugal , northwestern and northern Spain (including Galicia , Asturias , Cantabria , Southern Basque Country , and some portions of Castile and León ),

1264-566: Is a cultural continuum in Atlantic Europe, forming a cultural unit which has its roots in prehistoric times but remained until today mostly thanks to sea trade. Geographers also mention the influence of the natural environment in the construction of a similar cultural landscape along the western European coasts. Some of the first geographers to consider this idea of Atlantic Europe were Otero Pedrayo and Orlando Ribeiro . Pedrayo stated in his studies about Galicia that this territory

1343-598: Is actually an earlier, pre-Celtic, Atlantic culture that included Atlantic Europe and people of the Maghreb such as Berbers and that it continues today. There is a multi-national association of regions, which acts as a co-ordinator of Atlantic European regions and its interests. This is the Atlantic Arc Commission . Operative since 1989, it includes 26 regions from four member States - Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal. The Atlantic Arc Commission

1422-505: Is an era of British history that spanned from c.  2500–2000 BC until c.  800 BC . Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it 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

1501-464: 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

1580-533: Is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give 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

1659-713: 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

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1738-604: 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

1817-536: Is one of the seven Geographical Commissions in the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe . The genetic link between the various Atlantic population is still under discussion. On the one hand, some studies show that modern and Iron Age British and Irish samples cluster genetically very closely with other North European populations, and not to southern atlantic Europeans in Spain and France. However, as

1896-517: Is very similar to Romano-Celtic temples found elsewhere in Europe. A rectangular structure at Danebury and a sequence of six-poster structures overlooking calf burials and culminating in a trench-founded rectangular structure at Cadbury Castle , Somerset, have been similarly interpreted. An example at Sigwells, overlooking Cadbury Castle, was associated with metalwork and whole and partial animal burials to its east. However, evidence of an open-air shrine

1975-515: The Arras culture of East Yorkshire and the cist burials of Cornwall demonstrate that it was not ubiquitous. In Dorset , the Durotriges seem to have had small inhumation cemeteries, sometimes with high status grave goods. In fact, the general dearth of excavated Iron Age burials makes drawing conclusions difficult. Excarnation has been suggested as a reason for the lack of burial evidence, with

2054-618: The Britons were descended from people who had arrived from the Continent, and he compared the Caledonians (in modern-day Scotland ) to Germanic peoples, the Silures of Southern Wales to Iberian settlers and the inhabitants of Southeastern Britannia to Gaulish tribes. That migrationist view long informed later views of the origins of the British Iron Age and the making of the modern nations. Linguistic evidence inferred from

2133-519: The Corieltavi tribe. These were buried in 14 separate hoards over several decades in the early 1st century AD. The expansion of the economy throughout the period, but especially in the later Iron Age, is in large part a reflection of key changes in the expression of social and economic status. The Early Iron Age saw a substantial number of goods belonging to the Hallstatt culture imported from

2212-408: 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

2291-566: 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 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

2370-571: The Roman style are visible from the mid-to-late 1st century AD at Brixworth and Quinton . In areas where Roman rule was not strong or non-existent, Iron Age beliefs and practices remained but not without at least marginal levels of Roman or Romano-British influence. The survival of place names, such as Camulodunum ( Colchester ), which derive from the native language, is evidence of that. Bronze Age Britain Bronze Age Britain

2449-528: The Roman occupation the evidence suggests that as defensive structures, they proved to be of little use against concerted Roman attack. Suetonius comments that Vespasian captured more than 20 "towns" during a campaign in the West Country in 43 AD, and there is some evidence of violence from the hill forts of Hod Hill and Maiden Castle in Dorset from this period. Some hill forts continued as settlements for

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2528-460: The Trent and Tyne . Some buried hoards of jewellery are interpreted as gifts to the earth gods. Disused grain storage pits and the ends of ditches have also produced what appear to be deliberately-placed deposits, including a preference for burials of horses, dogs and ravens. The bodies were often mutilated, and some human finds at the bottom of pits, such as those found at Danebury , may have had

2607-510: 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

2686-623: The 1970s. There was certainly a large migration of people from Central Europe westwards during the early Iron Age. The question whether these movements should be described as "invasions", as "migrations" or as mostly "diffusion" is largely a semantic one. Examples of events that could be labelled "invasions" include the arrival in Southern Britain of the Belgae from the end of the 2nd century BC, as described in Caesar's Commentaries on

2765-462: The 50s BC. This fact may support a supposition that the Celts of Britain had an economic interest in supporting their Gallic brethren in their resistance to Roman occupation. In South-eastern Britain, meanwhile, extensive contact with the ' Belgic ' tribes of northern Gaul is evidenced by large numbers of imported Gallo-Belgic gold coins between the mid-2nd century BC and Caesar's conquest of Gaul in

2844-464: The 50s BC. Those coins probably did not principally move through trade. In the past, the emigration of Belgic peoples to South-Eastern Britain has been cited as an explanation for their appearance in that region. However, recent work suggests that their presence there may have occurred from a kind of political and social patronage that was paid by the northern Gaulish groups in exchange for obtaining aid from their British counterparts in their warfare with

2923-732: The Atlantic European shoreline can be considered a single biogeographical region . Physical geographers label this biogeographical area as the European Atlantic Domain , part of the Euro-Siberian botanic region . The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the Bronze Age period of approximately 1300–700 BC, that marked the economic and cultural exchange between the current territories of Portugal , Spain , France , Great Britain and Ireland . During this time, tin from throughout Atlantic Europe

3002-586: The Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture . During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from 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

3081-653: The Gallic War . Such sudden events may be invisible in the archaeological record. In that case, it depends on the interpretation of Aylesford-Swarling pottery . Regardless of the "invasionist" vs. "diffusionist" debate, it is beyond dispute that exchanges with the Continent were a defining aspect of the British Iron Age. According to Caesar, the Britons further inland than the Belgae believed that they were indigenous . The population of Britain increased significantly during

3160-557: The Iron Age probably to more than one million, partly due to improved barley and wheat and increased use of peas, beans and flax. Most were concentrated densely in the agricultural lands of the South. Settlement density and a land shortage may have contributed to rising tensions during the period. The average life expectancy at birth would have been around 25, but at the age of five, it would have been around 30. Those figures would be slightly lower for women, and slightly higher for men throughout

3239-457: The Iron Age, the widespread Wessex pottery of Southern Britain, such as the type style from All Cannings Cross , may suggest a consolidated socio-economic group in the region. However, by 600 BC, that appears to have broken down into differing sub-groups with their own pottery styles. Between c.  400 and 100 BC, there is evidence of emerging regional identities and a significant population increase. Claudius Ptolemy described Britain at

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3318-526: The Late Bronze Age but became common only in the period between 550 and 400 BC. The earliest were of a simple univallate form and often connected with earlier enclosures attached to the long ditch systems. Few hill forts have been substantially excavated in the modern era, Danebury being a notable exception, with 49% of its total surface area studied. However, it appears that the "forts" were also used for domestic purposes, with examples of food storage, industry and occupation being found within their earthworks. On

3397-659: The Mediterranean. At the same time, Northern European artefact types reached Eastern Great Britain in large quantities from across the North Sea . Defensive structures dating from this time are often impressive such as the brochs of Northern Scotland and the hill forts that dotted the rest of the islands. Some of the most well-known hill forts include Maiden Castle, Dorset ; Cadbury Castle, Somerset ; and Danebury , Hampshire . Hill forts first appeared in Wessex in

3476-536: The Middle Iron Age in most areas, on account of the high mortality rate of young women during childbirth; however, the average age for the two sexes would be roughly equal for the Late Iron Age. That interpretation depends on the view that warfare and social strife increased in the Late Iron Age, which seems to be fairly well attested in the archaeological record for Southern Britain at least. Early in

3555-496: The Romans on the Continent. After Caesar's conquest of Gaul, a thriving trade developed between South-Eastern Britain and the near Continent. That is archaeologically evidenced by imports of wine and olive oil amphorae and mass-produced Gallo-Belgic pottery . Strabo , writing in the early 1st century AD, lists ivory chains and necklaces, amber gems, glass vessels and other petty wares as articles imported to Britain, and he recorded

3634-433: 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

3713-560: 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

3792-619: The authors acknowledge, the sample used is unlikely to include many members of smaller genetically isolated populations that exist within countries. On the other hand, an article published in the American Journal of Genetics indicate - after including samples from different regions within European countries - a shared ancestry throughout the Atlantic zone, from northwest Iberia (Galicia) to western Scandinavia that dates back to end of

3871-511: The beginning of Roman rule but incorporated material from earlier sources. Although the name " Pretanic Isles " had been known since the voyage of Pytheas , and " Britannia " was in use by Strabo and Pliny , Ptolemy used the earlier " Albion ", which is known to have been used as early as the Massaliote Periplus . The Romans described a variety of deities worshipped by the people of Northwestern Europe. Barry Cunliffe perceives

3950-468: The better-structured and more populous social groups. Alternatively, there are suggestions that in the latter phases of the Iron Age, the structures simply indicate a greater accumulation of wealth and a higher standard of living although any such shift is invisible in the archaeological record for the Middle Iron Age, when hill forts come into their own. In that regard, they may have served as wider centres used for markets and social contact. Either way, during

4029-573: The body. However, even though customs changed, barrows and burial mounds continued to be used during 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

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4108-588: The coastal fringe of Europe, from Norway to South-Central Portugal (roughly down to the Santarém area), and including Britain and Ireland. With this in mind, Paredes affirms that there exists a cultural landscape common to Atlantic (namely Celtic) Europe, mainly based on the settlement pattern, use and shared perception of the lived space , thus evidencing in itself a social and cultural internal cohesion and continuity. Bob Quinn in his documentary series Atlantean speculates that western European Celtic culture

4187-562: The continent, and they came to have a major effect on Middle Iron Age native art. From the late 2nd century BC onwards, South-Central Britain was indirectly linked into Roman trading networks via Brittany and the Atlantic seaways to south-western Gaul . Hengistbury Head in Dorset was the most important trading site, and large quantities of Italian wine amphorae have been found there. These Atlantic trade networks were heavily disrupted following Julius Caesar 's failed conquest of Brittany in

4266-674: The continental habit of putting their names on the coins they had minted, with such examples as Tasciovanus from Verulamium and Cunobelinos from Camulodunum identifying regional differentiation. Hoards of Iron Age coins include the Silsden Hoard in West Yorkshire found in 1998. A large collection of coins, known as the Hallaton Treasure , was found at a Late Iron Age shrine near Hallaton , Leicestershire , in 2000 and consisted of 5,294 coins, mostly attributed to

4345-470: The group known as Celtic languages . However, it cannot be assumed that particular cultural features found in one Celtic-speaking culture can be extrapolated to the others. At present over 100 large-scale excavations of Iron Age sites have taken place, dating from the 8th century BC to the 1st century AD and overlapping into the Bronze Age in the 8th century BC. Hundreds of radiocarbon dates have been acquired and have been calibrated on four different curves,

4424-408: The individual, rather on the ancestors as a collective. For example, in 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

4503-659: The island's exports as grain, cattle, gold, silver, iron, hides, slaves and hunting dogs. That trade probably thrived as a result of political links and client kingship relationships that developed between groups in South-Eastern Britain and the Roman world. Historically speaking, the Iron Age in Southern Great Britain ended with the Roman invasion . Although the assimilation of Briton culture

4582-459: The land. The central organisation to undertake that had been present since the Neolithic period but became targeted at economic and social goals, such as taming the landscape, rather than the building of large ceremonial structures like Stonehenge . Long ditches, some many miles in length, were dug with enclosures placed at their ends. Those are thought to indicate territorial borders and

4661-656: The most precise being based on tree ring sequences. The following scheme summarises a comparative chart presented in a 2005 book by Barry Cunliffe , but British artefacts were much later in adopting Continental styles such as the La Tène style of Celtic art : The Iron Age has been further subdivided with the "Late Iron Age" in Britain showing developments of new types of pottery, possibly influenced by Roman or Gaulish cultures. The clearing of forests for cultivation of agricultural crops intensified and areas with heavier and damper soil were settled. Spelt ( Triticum spelta )

4740-469: The new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland . The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from 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

4819-538: The newly-conquered Britons . Some were also reused by later cultures, such as the Saxons in the early medieval period. Britain, we are told, is inhabited by tribes which are autochthonous and preserve in their ways of living the ancient manner of life. They use chariots, for instance, in their wars, even as tradition tells us the old Greek heroes did in the Trojan War. The Roman historian Tacitus suggested that

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4898-410: The one found during construction work at Heathrow Airport are interpreted as purpose-built shrines. The Hayling Island example was a circular wooden building set within a rectangular precinct and was rebuilt in stone as a Romano-British temple in the 1st century AD to the same plan. The Heathrow temple was a small cella surrounded by a ring of postholes thought to have formed an ambulatory , which

4977-457: The osteo-archaeological record, but evidence for pig, ox, dog and rarely chicken is widely represented. There is generally an absence from environmental remains of hunted game and wild species as well as fresh and sea water species, even in coastal communities. A key commodity of the Iron Age was salt, used for preservation and the supplementation of diet. Though difficult to find archaeologically, some evidence exists. Salterns , in which sea water

5056-502: The other hand, they may have been occupied only intermittently, as it is difficult to reconcile permanently-occupied hill forts with the lowland farmsteads and their roundhouses found during the 20th century, such as at Little Woodbury and Rispain Camp . Many hill forts are not in fact "forts" at all and demonstrate little or no evidence of occupation. The development of hill forts may have occurred from greater tensions that arose between

5135-503: The pre-Roman British and the Gauls . Religious practices often involved the ritual slaughter of animals or the deposition of metalwork, especially war booty. Weapons and horse trappings have been found in the bog at Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey and are interpreted as votive offerings cast into a lake. Numerous weapons have also been recovered from rivers, especially the Thames but also

5214-536: The region which attest to at least some form of trade and/or cultural link. In addition, a number of genetic studies seem to interrelate specific groups of population in parts of Atlantic Europe in contrast with, for example, Central or Mediterranean Europe . Some examples of early cultural contact are the European Megalithic Culture and the Atlantic Bronze Age , or " carp's tongue sword complex ". This refers to an industry mainly based on

5293-412: The remains of the dead being dispersed either naturally or through human agency. Trade links developed in the Bronze Age and beforehand provided Great Britain with numerous examples of continental craftsmanship. Swords especially were imported, copied and often improved upon by the natives. Early in the period, Hallstatt slashing swords and daggers were a significant import, but by the mid-6th century ,

5372-647: 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

5451-465: The southwestern and western portion of France ( Northern Basque Country ), western Scandinavia as well as western and northern Germany . Weather and overall physical conditions are relatively similar along this area (with the exception of parts of Scandinavia and the Baltic ), resulting in similar landscapes with common endemic plant and animal species. From a strictly physical point of view most of

5530-517: The surviving Celtic languages in Northern and Western Great Britain at first appeared to support the idea, and the changes in material culture that archaeologists observed during later prehistory were routinely ascribed to a new wave of invaders. From the early 20th century, the "invasionist" scenario was juxtaposed to a diffusionist view. By the 1960s, the latter model seemed to have gained mainstream support, but it in turn came under attack in

5609-523: The volume of goods arriving seems to have declined, possibly from more profitable trade centres appearing in the Mediterranean. La Tène culture items (usually associated with the Celts ) appeared in later centuries, and again, they were adopted and adapted with alacrity by the locals. There also appears to have been a collapse in the bronze trade during the early Iron Age, which can be viewed in three ways: With regard to animal husbandry, cattle represented

5688-606: The west coast of France and Brittany but which clearly had links with societies in Iberia and Britain , as evidenced by products such as the carp's tongue sword and the end winged axe , which were widely bought and sold along the routes of the Atlantic seaways. Atlantic Europe is also a term often used in reference to the territory occupied by the Celtic-speaking peoples and Celtic influenced people of western Europe. A number of authors have postulated that there still

5767-646: 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

5846-592: Was boiled to produce salt, are prevalent in the East Anglia fenlands. Additionally, Morris notes that some salt trading networks spanned over 75 km. Representing an important political and economic medium, the vast number of Iron Age coins found in Great Britain are of great archaeological value. Some, such as gold staters , were imported from Continental Europe. Others, such as the cast bronze ( potin ) coins of Southeast England, are clearly influenced by Roman originals. The British tribal kings also adopted

5925-640: Was far from instantaneous, some relatively-quick change is evident archaeologically. For example, the Romano-Celtic shrine in Hayling Island , Hampshire was constructed in the AD 60 to 70s, and Agricola was then still campaigning in Northern Britain (mostly in what is now Scotland ), and on top of an Iron Age ritual site. Rectilinear stone structures, indicative of a change in housing to

6004-516: Was found at Hallaton , Leicestershire . Here, a collection of objects known as the Hallaton Treasure were buried in a ditch in the early 1st century AD. The only structural evidence was a wooden palisade built in the ditch. Death in Iron Age Great Britain seems to have produced different behaviours in different regions. Cremation was a common method of disposing of the dead, but the chariot burials and other inhumations of

6083-412: Was marked by a strong "Atlantic character", not Mediterranean, despite the fact of being part of a Mediterranean state ( Spain ). On the other hand, while researching about his native Portugal , Ribeiro deepened the concepts of Atlantic Europe and Mediterranean Europe, linking southern Portugal more towards the Mediterranean culture and central and northern Portugal (together with Galicia and Asturias) to

6162-501: Was planted in these areas like the Tees Lowlands and some parts of Northern England . The end of the Iron Age extends into the very early Roman Empire under the theory that Romanisation required some time to take effect. In parts of Britain that were not Romanised , such as Scotland , the period is extended a little longer, say to the 5th century. The geographer closest to AD 100 is perhaps Ptolemy . Pliny and Strabo are

6241-633: Was traded in the Mediterranean . Via the Bell Beaker culture , Atlantic and Central Europe were in close cultural contact from at least the mid 3rd millennium BC, contributing to what would emerge as the Celtic culture of the West/Central European Iron Age . Archaeologists have noted that the prehistoric peoples of Atlantic Europe presented common traits, as shown by artifacts , artistic and architectural styles found in

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