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Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers carve images of animals onto the walls of caves at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire. -
The last ice age ends, and Britain is occupied continuously from this date onwards. At this time, Britain is still attached to Europe. -
Britain’s oldest known house was built at Howick, Northumberland.
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Sea levels rise and Britain becomes an island. The people who live here are still hunter-gatherers.
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The first farmers arrive in Britain by boat. They grow crops and raise animals like cattle and goats.
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Early monuments including causewayed enclosures like Windmill Hill, and long barrows like Stoney Littleton are in use.
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Elaborate and large monuments like Avebury henge, stone circles like the one at Stanton Drew and mounds like Silbury Hill are built.
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People arriving from Europe bring with them the knowledge of how to make tools from copper and bronze, as well as new styles of pottery and ways of burying the dead. -
The last major building works are completed at Stonehenge.
People now bury their dead under round barrows, like the ones at Winterbourne Poor Lot and Flowerdown. -
People begin to make their tools and weapons from iron and build hillforts as secure places during wars. -
‘Boxgrove man’, a six-foot tall man of the species Homo heidelbergensis, is alive at this time.
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Roman general Julius Caesar and his army briefly land in Britain. They defeat some British tribes but then leave to fight elsewhere.
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THE ROMAN INVASION
The Romans invade Britain again, and this time they stay, starting a new era in British history. -
Caratacus, chief of the British Catuvellauni tribe, is betrayed by Queen Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes, after they had been fighting the Romans together for years.
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Queen Boudicca of the Iceni tribe leads a rebellion against the Romans, which ends in defeat at the Battle of Watling Street.
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Agricola, a Roman general, becomes governor of Britain. He decides to invade northern Britain.
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The Romans start to build Hadrian’s Wall, marking the northern edge of their empire. -
Construction starts on the Antonine Wall, in what is now Scotland, but it is later abandoned around AD 160.
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Around this time, Roman Britain is divided into two provinces - one in the north and one in the south.
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The Roman army leaves Britain to go and defend Rome, and the Romano-British are left to rule themselves. Tintagel was built around this time.
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According to legend, the brothers Hengist and Horsa land on the Kent coast to begin Anglo-Saxon settlement in England.