Professional Documents
Culture Documents
es
Mesolithic (8000BC-3500BC)
Neolithic (3500BC-2400BC)
-the construction of megalithic monuments made of big stones. Usually used as tombs:
“New Grange” (henge), a mound of earth with: a kidney shape, surrounded by 97 kerbstones
(some of them decorated), an inner passage, a cruciform chamber and human remains.
1. Places of worship.
2. Astronomical observatories.
“Stonehenge” (henge). This monument is surrounded by mystery, the stones weren’t originally
from that area, they were probably brought from Wales to Salisbury, in Wiltshire, England.
Their origin is not clear. It is believed they were from somewhere in the East along the rivers
Danube and Rhine. They spread through Europe (specifically through “the area of Celtic
influence”).
There’s a popular belief that says that Celts were warrior people:
1. They often covered their bodies with tattoos made of a blue liquid extracted from a plant
called woad. 2. They fought naked. 3. They went shouting and running into the battle. 4. They
used a long trumpet with an animal head on top to fight called “Carnyx”. 5. They bleached
their hair using lime water.
There’s no evidence of Celtic migrants but Celtic languages were spoken by the 6th Century in
the British Isles. To explain this, there are different theories:
1. A migratory movement and invasion: they invaded the British Isles and settled there.
“Albion” comes from the Celtic word “Alp” meaning “high”. But the Romans mistook the name
and thought it came from the Latin word “album (which means white) because one of the first
things they saw when they invaded Britain were “the White Cliffs of Dover”.
The names that Celts had given to the British Isles were discovered by Pythias (a Greek
geographer) after a voyage to North-western Europe.
3. ROMAN BRITAIN.
3.1. The Roman invasion of Britain.
In 55BC, Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar. He was the first on calling that land Britannia
and the people who lived there Britons. (1st invasion-no permanent occupation of the land)
But the permanent occupation started in 43 AD when Claudius (Emperor of Rome) sent Aulus
Plautius and an army of 40000 men with the intention of invading Britannia. (2nd invasion-
permanent occupation of the land). It took them 40 years to conquer the region and they
stayed there for around 400 years.
3.2. Areas that were never completely romanized: the Highlands and the Moorlands.
The highlands in the North (Scoland) and the Moorlands in the West (Wales) were never
completely romanized. They were harsh landscapes and agriculturally poor so they remained
as frontier areas with military garrisons.
WALES: In Wales, there was a strong resistance of Celtic tribes against Romans. They had to
built defensive works at Chester and Caerwent.
SCOTLAND: In Scotland, the battle of Mons Grapius took place in 84AD. It was won by the
Romans led by Agricola against Calgacus. This victory was very important because it allowed
the Romans to move further North. They arrived at Caledonia (Roman name to refer to the
new conquered Northern territory; nowadays Scotland. But Caledonians (inhabitants of
Caledonia) shown a strong resistance and the Romans built major defensive constructions to
resist them:
Hadrian’s Wall: built in 122 AD. It is a long wall between The Tyne and the Solway built
by Emperor Hadrian. It was used as a frontier to divide Rome from the Barbarians
(those living in the North).
Antonine’s Wall: built in 142 AD. It’s a long wall between the Firth of Forth and Clyde.
It was used as a temporary Northern frontier to protect the Southern tribes from the
wild Caledonians. But Caledonian’s guerrilla fighting forced the Romans to retreat to
Hadrian’s Wall.
There were two Celtic Briton kings (Celtic Kings of the Britons).
Caractacus was the son of Cunobelinus King (Roman -friendly King) and the King of
Catuvellauni tribe after his father’s death. When Cunobelinus died, his sons: Caractacus and
Togodumnus started attacking other tribes (like for example Atrebates) who was Roman-
friendly. The King of Atrebates asked Emperor Claudius for help. Romans attacked and
Togodumnus died (beginning of the Roman Invasion in 43AD).
Boudicca was the wife of Prasatagus’s King and the Queen of the Iceni after her husband’s
death. The Iceni were Roman-friendly (they were friendly to the Romans) but after
Prasatagus’s death, they began making strong demands (they wanted the possessions of the
King that belonged to his family). There was a serious confrontation: Roman soldiers whipped
Boudicca and rapped her daughters. The Iceni led by Boudicca started a revolt against Romans
with the support of Trinovantes. They advanced to the Roman Towns of Camulodunum
(Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulanium (St. Albans) sacked them and set them fire.
She was defeated in an open battle which took place in 61AD. Nobody knows what happened
to her and her daughters because they disappeared. The legend says that they poisoned
themselves.
4. ROMAN Britain.
4.1. Life in Roman Britain: towns.
Some of them based on big tribal centers that already existed: (Colchester –
Camulodunum).
Coloniae: fomer military garrisons (Glocester, Lincoln). Most important ones.
Municipia: less important than the Coloniae (St. Albans, Verulanium).
Civitates: Local government areas based on chiefdom boundaries where people who
didn’t live in these towns (called peregrine) were organized.
Chartered towns: towns ruled by an Ordo run by magistrates who rotated annually.
They were responsible for collecting taxes, undertaking public works, administrating
justice.
They had the typical elements of a Roman town: forums, theatres, amphitheatres, bath
houses, public buildings, shops.
There were other people who lived in farms built following the model of Roman villas. They
were a development of original Celtic farmsteads through the gradual addition of: stone
walls, multiple rooms, hypocausts (heating systems) and elaborate mosaics.
In the 3rd and 4th Century there was a golden age of villa building with the addition of more
rooms and central courtyards.
Romans also built a system of roads for military and commercial aids. Some of the roads were:
In 212 AD, Caracalla (Roman Emperor) extended citizenship to all free-born inhabitants of the
Empire, but social and legal distinctions between the honestiores and the humiliores
remained.
Women had limited property right and not allowed to hold public jobs.
There are some Latin loanwords that have survived in present English:
In 410AD, Emperor Honorius’s letter marked the final withdrawal of the Romans troops from
Britain, connected probably to the Saxon raids they were suffering on the Eastern coast of
Britain. Due to the difficulty of protecting the isle, they finally gave up. In this historical
context, the figure of King Arthur appeared.
Arthur was a dux bellorum: a professional soldier who fought first with the Romans and then
with the British Kings to stop the Saxon invasion of Britain. He defeated the Saxons in the
“battle of Mount Badon” (between 490-517AD) and Britain was victorious.