Prehistoric London: history of Britain’s capital before the Romans
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Discover Britain’s history before the Romans including hunter-gatherers, stone age, land bridge, English channel 10,000BC, farmers 4000BC, 2000BC Bronze Age, metalworkers, Iron Age, Celtic languages and the first coins.
- Hunter-gatherers where the first people to live in Britain during the period known as the Stone Age
- A land bridge connected Britain to the continent and people came and went, following the herds of deer and horses which they hunted.
- Britain only became permanently separated from the continent by the Channel about 10,000 years ago.
- The first farmers arrived in Britain 6,000 years ago from south-east Europe.
- These people built houses, tombs and monuments on the land.
- Around 4,000 years ago, people learned to make bronze which led to the period known as the Bronze Age.
- People lived in roundhouses and buried their dead in tombs called round barrows
- They became talented metalworkers who made many beautiful objects in bronze and gold, including tools, ornaments and weapons.
- During the Iron Age, around 800B people learned how to make weapons and tools out of iron
- Most people were either farmers, craft workers or warriors.
- They spoke a Celtic language, which is related to languages still spoken today in some parts of Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
- The people of the Iron Age had a sophisticated culture and economy,
- They made the first coins to be minted in Britain, some inscribed with the names of Iron Age kings.
- This marked the beginnings of British history.