Prehistoric Britain
How life in Britain changed from the Stone Age to the Iron Age: farming began, new tool materials spread, and settlements and trade changed. Archaeologists use objects and sites to study these periods. Older materials continued in use alongside newer ones.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Place the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age in order and describe one big change across them (e.g., from hunting to farming)
- Explain what a site like Skara Brae or Stonehenge tells us about how prehistoric people lived
- Explain why we depend on objects and sites rather than writing to learn about prehistoric Britain
1 · Read
An old tool is evidence of past life. Britain's prehistoric ages run in this order: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. The names come from tool materials. Early Stone Age people hunted and gathered food. Farming began later in the Stone Age, about 6,000 years ago. People grew crops and kept animals. New materials did not make older ones disappear.
Skara Brae is a Stone Age village in Orkney. Its stone beds and shelves give clues about sleeping and storing things. At Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone circle, people raised huge standing stones in a circle. Moving and lifting them needed planning and teamwork. Houses and monuments tell us different things about past life.
Prehistory means the time before written records. We have no diaries from the people who built Skara Brae or Stonehenge. Archaeologists study bones, tools, pots and buildings for clues. These clues do not tell us every detail of a person's life.
An object can give clues about its material and use. One clue alone may not tell you its age.
Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Objects and sites help us learn about life before written records.
The rewritten readings were written for this dataset.
More to read
Britain's first farmers
Before farming, people in Britain found food by hunting and collecting wild plants. Around 4000 BCE, about 6,000 years ago, farming arrived during the later Stone Age. Farmers planted crops and raised cattle and sheep.
They made fields by clearing land and built houses. They used pottery and axes made from polished stone. These changes took time. People still hunted and gathered as farming spread.
Clues left in stone
A stone tool can tell archaeologists how people once lived. They look for several marks left by chipping and edges shaped with care. Nature can break stones in similar ways. A sharp edge alone does not show that people made it.
Some tools were made from nearby stone; others used stone brought from elsewhere. Experts consider the find spot, other objects and layers of soil together. The stone's material cannot tell them its age on its own.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge stands on Salisbury Plain. Its first large earthwork was made around 3000 BCE. The famous stone circle was raised later, around 2500 BCE. It was changed again over time.
Some stones line up with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset. This shows that the Sun mattered to its builders, though we do not know every use of the monument. Moving and raising the stones took skill and teamwork. Archaeologists study the stones, buried objects and the surrounding landscape to learn more.
The Iron Age
Britain's Iron Age began around 800 BCE. People increasingly made tools and weapons from iron. They also kept using bronze, including for decorated objects. A new material did not make all older materials worthless.
Ironworking required skill. The changing tools, farms, settlements and objects left behind help archaeologists study Iron Age life. The period was a long change, not one sudden event that explains every community.
2 · Watch
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