britishstudies: Pre-historic Britain:Pre-historic Britain

Sub-topics : 1) Pre-his toric Britain: Iberians , Celts 2) Stonehenge, Stone-age art Stonehenge2.pptx Pres entation_Pre-his toric_Britain__tuulike,_merlyn 2.ppt

The Iberians
The Iberians are the oldest historically known inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula. The rst theory suggests that they arrived in Spain during the Neolithic period and the second thinks that they may have originated in North Africa.

About 3000 BC many parts of Europe, including the British Isles, were inhabited by these people. Iberians were skilled riders and each tribe had a chivalry unit. Their main weapons were the bow and the arrows, falcata, the shield, the helmet and the large spear. Sometimes, women fought together with the men. In the Iberian society, women could also be priestesses. The famous Iberian carving called Lady of Elx, dated from the 3rd century BC and made of limestone, could represent a priestess. The Iberians put up buildings of stone and wood and built the rst roads. They built the burial chambers and huge temples (henges). They used stone axes and made antlers or bones into leather-working tools.

Lady of Elx

The Celts
The Celts were a group of peoples that occupied lands stretching from the British Isles to Gallatia. European Celts invaded Britain in two waves. First the Gaels came around 600 BC and the second wave was that of the Cymri or Britons around 300 BC. They brought the technique of smelting iron. The Celts lived in villages and built forts, which were protected with ditches and ramparts, on hilltops. These people lived under the primitive system there was no private property, no classes, no exploitation. They grew wheat and corn, caught wish and tamed or bred animals. They also learned the art of pottery and made things of wool, metal and copper. Celtic is the ancestor of the Gaelic, Irish, and Welsh languages.

Celtic cross

Exercise: 1) The Iberians are the oldest historically known inhabitants of the..........Peninsula. 2) The first theory suggests that they arrived in.during the Neolithic period and the second thinks that they may have originated in North........... 3) The famous Iberian carving called . of Elx, dated from the 3rd century BC and made of., could represent a priestess. 4) The. were a group of peoples that occupied lands stretching from the British Isles to Gallatia. 5) First the Gaels came around. BC and the second wave was that of the Cymri or Britons around 300 BC. 6) They brought the technique of smelting.. 7) Celtic is the ancestor of the., Irish, and. languages.

Answers: 1) Iberian 2) Spain, Africa

3) 4) 5) 6) 7)

Lady, limestone Celts 600 iron Gaelic, Welsh

Sources: English History for Form 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ethnographic_Iberia_200_BCE.PNG http://news.softpedia.com/news/Who-Were-the-Iberians-78220.shtml http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Who-Were-the-Iberians-2.jpg/ http://www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/celts.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ccross.svg

Stonehenge
Stonehenge in England is one of the most famous sites and greatest mysteries in the world. It is located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.2 kilometres west of Amesbury and 13 kilometres north of Salisbury. In Europe there are about 600 monuments similar to Stonehenge, but Stonehenge is the oldest prehistoric monument. Stonehenge consists of 4 circles. It consisted originally of a circle of 30 upright stones, their tops linked by lintel stones to form a continuous circle about 30 m across. Within the circle was a horseshoe arrangement of five trilithons and the Altar Stone in the middle of the cicle. The local sandstone, or sarsen, was used for the uprights, which measure 5.5 m by 2 m and weigh some 26 tonnes each. A secondary circle and horseshoe were built of bluestones. The bluestones, so called because of their faintly bluish colour, originally formed a circle of 60 stones and a horseshoe shape of 19 stones. These came from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, about 240 miles away from land and sea.

The stones are aligned almost perfectly with the sunrise on the summer solstice, and it is almost unquestioned that Stonehenge was built as a spectacular place of worship. It is not known who built the Stonehenge, but the best guess seems to be that the Stonehenge site was built by the people of the late Neolithic period (around 3000 BC) and carried forward by people from a new economy which was arising at this time. These "new" people, called Beaker Folk because of their use of pottery drinking vessels, began to use metal implements and to live in a more communal fashion than their ancestors. Some think that they may have been immigrants from the continent, but that contention is not supported by archaeological evidence. It is likely that they were indigenous people doing the same old things in new ways.

Close to Stonehenge is the Heelstone, the direction of this, if you stand in the middle of the circles, points towards midsummer Sunrise. Also four of the Aubrey Holes have been marked specially, two with mounds of Earth and two with stones. These four holes make a rectangle, the diagonals of which correspond to the rising and setting of the Moon at midsummer and midwinter. How the Stonehenge observatory is believed to have worked is that there was a stone for the Sun, a stone for the Moon and two stones representing the nodal points (where the Moon and Sun's paths intersect each other). The Moon stone would be moved, anticlockwise, one hole every half day, the Sun stone would be moved one hole in the same direction every 13 half days, the nodal points would be moved three holes clockwise every year.

Stonehenge was built in several stages. The earliest building stage dates from around 3100 to 2900 BCE, when the outer circular bank and ditch were built, about 300 feet in diameter. Just inside the bank, 56 post holes were dug, each of which would presumably have held a wooden post. These are what are now known as the Aubrey holes, named after the 17th century antiquary and writer John Aubrey, who noted them in 1666. The purpose of these holes is unknown, although it has been conjectured that they could have functioned as an astronomical calculator, or even as a calendar, with a post or posts being moved to different holes as the year progressed. During the scecond stage dating from around 2900-2400 BC, some 82 bluestones from the Preseli mountains, in south-west Wales were transported to the site. It is thought these stones, some weighing 4 tonnes each were dragged on rollers and sledges to the headwaters on Milford Haven and then loaded onto rafts. They were carried by water along the south coast of Wales and up the rivers Avon and Frome, before being dragged overland again to near Warminster in Wiltshire. The final stage of the journey was mainly by water, down the river Wylye to Salisbury, then the Salisbury Avon to west Amesbury. This astonishing journey covers nearly 240 miles. Once at the site, these stones were set up in the centre to form an incomplete double circle. However, the cremation deposits found in the Aubrey holes and elsewhere on the site suggest that the purpose of Stonehenge at this time was as a funeral site where bodies would have been cremated. The third stage of Stonehenge, about 2550-1600 BC, saw the arrival of the Sarsen stones, which were almost certainly brought from the Marlborough Downs near Avebury, in north Wiltshire, about 25 miles north of Stonehenge. The largest of the Sarsen stones transported to Stonehenge weigh 50 tonnes and transportation by water would have been impossible, the stones could only have been moved using sledges and ropes. Modern calculations show that it would have taken 500 men using leather ropes to pull one stone, with an extra 100 men needed to lay the huge rollers in front of the sledge. These stones were arranged in an outer circle with a continuous run of lintels. Inside the circle, five trilithons were placed in a horseshoe arrangement, whose remains we can still see today. The final stage took place soon after 1500 BC when the bluestones were rearranged in the horseshoe and circle that we see today.

Stone-age art
High up on the moorlands of northern England, a mysterious series of strange and ancient carvings hewn into the rocks and boulders have been found. It includes a series of intricate designs of concentric circles, interlocking rings and hollowed cups. The art, thought to be the work of Neolithic man, is open to the air but is so remote that it had lain undisturbed and undetected for thousands of years - until it was recently discovered by English Heritage.

There are about 2,500 examples which exist in England - having survived natural erosion, quarrying and field clearance.

During the Neolithic period, 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, man moved away from the roaming existence of the hunter-gatherer who traversed the country, following his prey, to a more settled existence. New Stone Age man preferred to stay put, tending cereals and domestic animals.How all of this fitted in with the abstract curves of their rock carvings is anyone's guess.

Answer the questions below: When was Stonehenge built? Who built it? What was it probably built for? What kind of prehistoric art have been found in England? Who has made this art? Answers: 3100 BC to 1500 BC. Neolithic men. For observation. A series of intricate designs of concentric circles, interlocking rings and hollowed cups.

Neolithic men.
Sources: http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/england/stonehenge.html http://www.miksike.ee/docs/referaadid2005/stonehenge_teelekepler.htm http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16465/chosenImageId/8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1041340/Revealed-Britains-secret-treasure-trove-stone-age-rockart.html