Prehistoric settlement of the British Isles refers to the earliest establishment and expansion of human settlements in locations in the British Isles.
These include:
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A crannog is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes, and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps that were built on the shores and were inundated only later on, crannogs were built in the water, thus forming artificial islands.
Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. Consisting of eight clustered houses, it was occupied from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC and is Europe's most complete Neolithic village. Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney". Older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids, it has been called the "Scottish Pompeii" because of its excellent preservation.
Jarlshof is the best known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies near the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It contains remains dating from 2500 BC up to the 17th century AD.
Archaeology and geology continue to reveal the secrets of prehistoric Scotland, uncovering a complex past before the Romans brought Scotland into the scope of recorded history. Successive human cultures tended to be spread across Europe or further afield, but focusing on this particular geographical area sheds light on the origin of the widespread remains and monuments in Scotland, and on the background to the history of Scotland.
Unstan ware is the name used by archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Typical are elegant and distinctive shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim, a type of decoration which was created using a technique known as "stab-and-drag". A second version consists of undecorated, round-bottomed bowls. Some of the bowls had bits of volcanic rock included in the clay to make them stronger. Bone tools were used to burnish the surfaces to make them shiny and impermeable.
Little Woodbury is the name of an important Iron Age archaeological site near the city of Salisbury in the English county of Wiltshire.
Prehistoric Wales in terms of human settlements covers the period from about 230,000 years ago, the date attributed to the earliest human remains found in what is now Wales, to the year AD 48 when the Roman army began a military campaign against one of the Welsh tribes. Traditionally, historians have believed that successive waves of immigrants brought different cultures into the area, largely replacing the previous inhabitants, with the last wave of immigrants being the Celts. However, studies of population genetics now suggest that this may not be true, and that immigration was on a smaller scale.
The Hebrides were settled early on in the settlement of the British Isles, perhaps as early as the Mesolithic era, around 8500-8250 BC, after the climatic conditions improved enough to sustain human settlement. There are examples of structures possibly dating from up to 3000 BC, the finest example being the standing stones at Callanish, but some archaeologists date the site as Bronze Age. Little is known of the people who settled in the Hebrides but they were likely of the same Celtic stock that had settled in the rest of Scotland. Settlements at Northton, Harris, have both Beaker & Neolithic dwelling houses, the oldest in the Western Isles, attesting to the settlement.
Allasdale is a settlement on Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The settlement is also within the parish of Barra, and is situated on the A888 which is the island's circular main road.
Paul Ashbee was a leading British archaeologist, noted for his many excavations of barrows, or burial mounds, and for co-directing the Sutton Hoo digs from 1964 to 1972; he was perhaps less well known as president of the Just William Society, established in 1995 to celebrate the literary oeuvre of Richmal Crompton, his wife's aunt. He died of cancer on 19 August 2009, aged 91.
The Insular Celts are the speakers of the Insular Celtic languages, which comprise all the living Celtic languages as well as their precursors, but the term is mostly used in reference to the peoples of the British Iron Age prior to the Roman conquest, and their contemporaries in Ireland.
The Swimming Reindeer is the name given to a 13,000-year-old Magdalenian sculpture of two swimming reindeer conserved in the British Museum. The sculpture was made in what is now modern-day France by an unknown artist who carved the artwork from the tip of a mammoth tusk. The sculpture was found in two pieces in 1866, but it was not until the early 20th century that Abbé Henri Breuil realised that the two pieces fit together to form a single sculpture of two reindeer swimming nose-to-tail.
Stannon stone circle is a stone circle located near St. Breward on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England.
Duloe stone circle or Duloe circle is a stone circle near the village of Duloe, located 5 miles (8.0 km) from Looe in southeast Cornwall, England, UK.
Fernacre, also known as Fernacre stone circle or Fernacre circle, is a stone circle located on the slopes of the De Lank River, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) northeast of St Breward on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall in the United Kingdom.
Goodaver, Goodaver stone circle or Goodaver circle is a stone circle located in the parish of Altarnun, near Bolventor on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, UK.
Prehistoric Shetland refers to a period in the human occupation of the Shetland archipelago of Scotland that was the latter part of these islands' prehistory. The period of prehistory prior to occupation by the genus Homo is part of the geology of Scotland. Although some written records refer to Shetland during the Roman invasions of Scotland, prehistory in Shetland does not end until the later part of the Early Historic Period in Scotland, around AD 900.
The stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany are a megalithic tradition of monuments consisting of standing stones arranged in rings. These were constructed from 3300 to 900 BCE in Britain, Ireland and Brittany. It has been estimated that around 4,000 of these monuments were originally constructed in this part of north-western Europe during this period. Around 1,300 of them are recorded, the others having been destroyed.
The Standing Stones of Yoxie is a Neolithic site in the parish of Nesting on the northeastern coast of Whalsay, in the Shetland islands of Scotland. It is located approximately 100 yards (91 m) to the southeast of Benie Hoose, not far from the steep cliffs of Yoxie Geo. The site is also known as "Yoxie Biggins". The structure is the remains of a building in a neolithic settlement called Pettigarths Field, about 4,000 years old, which also includes a megalithic tomb and Benie Hoose. The site has been compared to that of Hal Tarxien.
The Ronaldsway Culture was the way of life of a Stone Age people on the Isle of Man. Sometimes referred to as Manx Ronaldsway, it dates from the later Neolithic and from the third millennium BC, but more precise dating is a matter of debate.