CELTIC BRITAIN

About a thousand years BCE Celts spread across Europe. Northwest Europe was dominated by
three main Celtic groups:
- THE GAULS: northern France
- THE BRITONS: Wales, Cornwall (southwest England)
- THE GAELS: Ireland, Scotland
They spoke a common language wich still survives today and it is incomprehensible for English
speakers.
Celtis lived in tribes and their religion was called Druidism (most important divinity: sun god).
The monument in the southwest of England called Stonehenge may have been connected with
their worship of the Sun.
In Wiltshire, Stonehenge is an enormous circle of stones.
It was of great significance to the people who erected it.
Unfortunately, we don’t know about the prehistoric people
who built it. But we know that Stonehenge sits in the
middle of an older archaeological site.
This site has three concentric circles that represent fifteen
hours of day and night, for a total of thirty hours in a day. Each
circumference counts two hours (of 45 minutes) for a total of 90
minutes, per quadrant. Based on the shadow of the central stone caused
by the sun, time was counted. It was a natural clock different from
ours.

THE ROMAN INVASION

Romans come to Britain nearly 2000 years ago. Still now we can see their influence on buildings,
forts, roads and baths all over Britain.
Julius Caesar raided Britain in 55 and 54 BCE and 100 years later Romans with Emperior
Claudius conquered the Island.
Roman Britain: England and Wales.
Unable to overcame “Caledonia” (Scotland) They, led by
Emperor Hadrian, built a wall to defend the province. This wall
can still be seen today.
Romans brought civilisation, lenguage and Christianity to
Britain.
The last Roman soldiers left Britain in 410 CE and then new
people come in across the North Sea, Anglo-Saxons.

ANGLO-SAXON
THE ARRIVAL
Germanic tribes: Angles, Saxons and Jutes. They spoke different dialects of a language called now
“Old English”. We still find some Anglo-Saxons words (often mono-syllabic) in modern English.
For the attack the civilian population organised resistence for many years. The final refuge was
Cornwall, Wales and Cumberland.
After the struggle (lotta) Anglo-Saxon England was divided into 7 states. This period il colled
“The Heptarchy”. (660-800)

WHAT WERE THEY LIKE?

Knowledges of them are based on legend.
The initial settlers (coloni) were war-like people who governed themselves by war councils. The
king had around his “thanes” (seguaci), who gave him protection. They paid taxes and went to war
when required.
Anglo-Saxons were in villages, they preferred log houses (di legno).
They were both country-dwellers (abitanti di campagna) and warriors.

CHRISTIANITY
Anglo-Saxons were pagans.
In the sixth century Pope Gregory the Great sent a mission for
monk (monaco) Augustine to convert them. He went in Kent,
the most civilised of their kingdoms and he built a church in
Canterbury, where he later become the first archbishop
(vescovo).
Meanwhile (nel frattempo) Roman Britons (in the western part of
England) had preservered the Christian faith (fede). One of them, St
Patrick, oganised a Church among the Celts of Ireland. This form of
Christianity spread gradually.
Churches and monasteries were in northern England and here monks
copied old manuscripts and wrote new ones. Famous is the monk
Venerable Bede, who wrote in Latin the main source about knowledge of
the period.
Anglo-Saxons were gradually converted to Christianity.