Pre-Historic Britain |
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Contrary to many beliefs, pre-historic Britain was not inhabited by homo williamreesmoggiensis, one of which has regrettably survived into the 21st century. In fact the pre-historic humans were far more intelligent, and less likely to murder you simply for being poor.
The earliest evidence of humanoid habitation is nearly 1m years ago - homo antecessor, possibly the last common ancestor between homo sapiens and Neanderthals. But given the time since they were around, evidence is rather scant. More recently there is much better evidence for homo heidelbergensis at a time when Britain was still permanently connected to continental Europe around ½m years ago. Neanderthals inhabited the new islands between 400k and 40k years ago, but then became extinct (although now the prevailing theory is that they interbred with homo sapiens, and that a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA can be found in humans today). Home Sapiens finally started to wander into Britain in the next 30,000 years, but were frequently driven back by the ice.
Britain has been continuously inhabited for around the last 11,750 years. The land bridge between Great Britain and Ireland was breached about 11,000 years ago, but that between Great Britain and the continent persisted until about 7,500 years ago, when riisng sea levels from melting ice caps finally submerged it.
A bear was killed in Ireland around 12,500 years ago - the bones show clear cut marks made with stone tools
At the time of Julius Caesar, France (Gaul as the Romans called it) was inhabited by Gauls (who called themselves Celts) and Belgae in an area to the north considerably larger than modern Belgium. The Belgae may have spoken an extinct Belgian language - an Indo-European language separate from the Celtic and Germanic languages
Language
The earliest evidence of humanoid habitation is nearly 1m years ago - homo antecessor, possibly the last common ancestor between homo sapiens and Neanderthals. But given the time since they were around, evidence is rather scant. More recently there is much better evidence for homo heidelbergensis at a time when Britain was still permanently connected to continental Europe around ½m years ago. Neanderthals inhabited the new islands between 400k and 40k years ago, but then became extinct (although now the prevailing theory is that they interbred with homo sapiens, and that a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA can be found in humans today). Home Sapiens finally started to wander into Britain in the next 30,000 years, but were frequently driven back by the ice.
Britain has been continuously inhabited for around the last 11,750 years. The land bridge between Great Britain and Ireland was breached about 11,000 years ago, but that between Great Britain and the continent persisted until about 7,500 years ago, when riisng sea levels from melting ice caps finally submerged it.
A bear was killed in Ireland around 12,500 years ago - the bones show clear cut marks made with stone tools
At the time of Julius Caesar, France (Gaul as the Romans called it) was inhabited by Gauls (who called themselves Celts) and Belgae in an area to the north considerably larger than modern Belgium. The Belgae may have spoken an extinct Belgian language - an Indo-European language separate from the Celtic and Germanic languages
Language