The Celtic Britain



The first people of the type of Homo Sapiens lived in nowadays Britain in late Old Stone Age as far as some 40,000 years ago. Those were the cave dwellers dependent wholly upon hunting, fishing and gathering wild fruits.

The first settlers of the modern age came to Britain during the period of the New Stone Age around 3,000 BC. They settled along the chalk hills of The first people of the type of Homo Sapiens lived in nowadays Britain in late Old Stone Sussex and in the fertile-soiled Southeast of the island. They were completely unwarlike. They grew crops and bred domestic animals, knew pottery and used flint-tools, especially the hand axes. They lived in small tribal groups ruled by a chieftain and buried their dead in the mound barrows. These people are also known with building of the Henges of which many are even now visible.

These Henges seem to have been of a great importance to the folks. They can be found all around Britain as well as in Cornwall, Scotland, Ireland and in the Orkneys. They possibly served as a meeting or ceremonial points whereas the relation to the Sun- or Moon phases can not be fully excluded. Gradually their importance diminished and receded to that of the oppida, which had become the seats of the warchiefs or local kings. Around 2000 BC another group, the one which we now call “The Beaker folk” because of the pottery usually included in their graves, began to move from the continent to the Isles. They knew the technology of smelting the tin and copper and thus the Bronze Age had begun.

From the 8th to the 5th century BC the Celtic tribes occupying the area of north - western Germany and the Netherlands started to invade Britain. There were three main streams of this invasion: The Gaels who settled in Ireland and the North of Scotland where they developed a strong tribal society. The second were the most numerous Britons who were coming during the 5th century BC and settled in the Southeast of England, whenceforth the island has got its name. The last of the major Celtic or Gaelic peoples were the Belgae who came about 100 BC and settled mostly in the area of nowadays Kent and the Southeast of the island.