Prehistoric Britain

I. Civilization
    A. Latin root: civitas = city, city-state
    B. food production = increased population = towns/cities/states, 
        specialization of labor, centralized government, 
        organized religion, writing and technology = civilization

II. The Stone Age
    A. Old Stone Age (c. 2.5m - 10k BCE; begins probably about 300-200k BCE in Britain)
        - mainly hunting and gathering
    B. Middle Stone Age (c. 10k - 7.5k BCE)
        1. beginnings of agriculture in Mesopotamia/Egypt [MAP]
        2. villages starting to develop
    C. New Stone Age (c. 7.5k - 4000 BCE; goes to about 2000 BCE in Britain)
        1. agriculture/villages developing in Britain
        2. ancient barrow called Silbury Hill in Wiltshire (c. 2650 BCE)
        3. Megalithic Monuments
            a. Court Tomb [Keel East 62]
            b. Portal Tomb [Poulnabrone Dolmen]
            c. Passage Tombs [Knowth, Newgrange, facade with roof box, Solstice]
            d. Rock Art [Knowth]

III. The Bronze Age (3500 - 1200 BCE; 2000 - mid first millennium BCE)
    A. Bronze Age burial urn
    B. Megalithic Monuments
        1. Wedge Tomb [Gleninsheen]
        2. Stone Circles 
            a. Stonehenge
            b. Drombeg, Solstice Alignment, Axial Stone, Depressions, Coins

IV. The Iron Age
    A. Celts in Britain: Myth or Reality?
    B. Celtic and British Civilization
        1. Hierarchical society with distinct governing institutions
            - kingship - divine office
        2. Organized religion
        3. Urbanization
            a. mainly lived in round houses in rural settlements [Drombeg remains, Cooking Pit]
            b. urban settlements in Britain
                1. Maiden Castle (Dorset) - 47 acres
                2. Danebury (Hampshire) - 27 acres
            c. extensive network of roads built with wooden planks [Corlea Trackway]
                - to connect towns/cities and to move warriors quickly
        4. Economy
            a. coinage [coins of the Iceni tribe: 1, 2]
            b. ships
            c. trade with the Romans [bronze mirror]
        5. Writing
            a. no written language in the first millennium
            b. but they wrote in Greek, Latin and other languages during this period
    C. Women
        1. Boudicca (1st c. CE)
            a. ruler of the Iceni tribe in eastern England
            b. very successful in leading the Iceni army against the Romans
        2. higher degree of legal equality than Greek and Roman women
            - e.g., adultery
    D. Religion
        1. polytheistic society
        2. belief in an afterlife in the "Otherworld" that was similar to life in this world
        3. belief in immortality of the soul
        4. festival of Samhain (31 October)
    E. The Druids
        1. romantic views: rituals around oak trees; human sacrifices at Stonehenge
            - no evidence for either of these views
        2. they were the intellectual leaders of society
            a. teachers
            b. judges