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.
2 · Watch
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