Stone, bronze and iron
Early Britainto 1066
Long before anyone here wrote anything down, people left behind buildings we can still walk into. The first farmers in Britain are thought to have arrived about 6,000 years ago, probably from south-east Europe, and they turned a land of hunter-gatherers into one of settled farms, tombs and monuments.
On Orkney sits Skara Brae, a huddle of stone houses so well preserved that it is still the clearest picture in northern Europe of how such a village worked, down to the furniture built into its walls. In Wiltshire stands Stonehenge, a ring of huge stones that most historians read as a gathering place for seasonal ceremonies rather than anywhere anyone lived.
The Bronze Age started about 4,000 years ago, when people learned to work bronze, living in roundhouses and burying their dead beneath round barrows. Iron came later, with stronger tools and defended hilltops, one of the finest surviving at Maiden Castle in Dorset.
What to remember
 Stonehenge | Wiltshire Probably a gathering place for seasonal ceremonies, not a settlement. |
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| Maiden Castle | Dorset An Iron Age hill fort you can still see today. |
 Skara Brae | Orkney The best-preserved prehistoric village in northern Europe. |
| The first farmers in Britain | arriving about 6,000 years ago, probably from south-east Europe They built houses, tombs and monuments, and their ancestors changed Britain from a land of hunter-gatherers. |
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| The Bronze Age | beginning about 4,000 years ago, when people learned to make bronze People lived in roundhouses and buried their dead in tombs called round barrows. |
| The people of the Iron Age | speaking a language from the Celtic family, and making the first coins minted in Britain Some coins carry the names of Iron Age kings; the Celtic languages survive in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. |
Everything in Early Britainor the whole course, from the beginning