Class 2: English culture and
history
Great diversity of physical features
o Influenced by:
Human settlement
Population movement
Military conquest
Political unions
The British isles:
o Last ice age: The entire country was connected to the mainland
and was not an island
o Has +-920 islands:
Great Britain
Ireland
The Inner and Outer Hebrides
The Shetlands & The Orkneys
The Isle of Man
The Isle of Wight
The Isles of Scilly
Channel Islands
Subdivisions:
o Based on Anglo-Saxon kingdom subdivisions
o Existed between 1994 - 2011
o The Heptarchy (The 7 kingdoms):
Northumbria
Mercia
East Anglia
Essex
Kent
, Sussex
Wessex
Counties
o Historically divided into 92 counties
o Today the foundation for ceremonial counties
o Largely related to the monarchy and for administrative
metropolitan and non-metropolitan subdivisions
o Ceremonial Counties of England
o Preserved Counties of Wales
o Lieutenancy areas of Scotland
Roman Britain
o (Prehistoric Britain)
o Finds:
850,000 years ago: footprints near Happisburgh
700,000 years ago: butchered animal bones and stone tools
in East Anglia
500,000 years ago: Boxgrove Man in West-Sussex
o Events:
8,300 BCE Mesolithic settlers arrived by land and sea
6,000-5000 BCE: Land bridge disappears
o Periods:
4,000 BCE – 2,000 BCE: Neolithic period
Introduction of agriculture
Evidence of religion: Windmill Hill
o Centres of ritual and seasonal tribal feasting
o Evolved into Henge Monuments
2,000 – 700 BCE: Bronze Age
Beaker Folk
Wessex Chieftains
, Trade from Ireland to the Baltic and Greece
Transformation of neolithic Stonehenge
o Pre-Roman Britain: The Celts
Knowledge of iron introduced in 7th c. BCE
Celts is a modern name for many tribes who lived during the
Iron Age
6th c. BCE: Growing population leads to pressure on the
land
3rd c. BCE: La Tène Celtic art
200 BCE: Insular Celtic character
Insular Celtic = Celtic languages and cultures that
developed in the British Isles and surrounding areas,
including Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and parts of
England and France.
Southeast starts getting settled by tribes from Belgic
Gaul
Celtic Language
Indo-European language family
Spoken throughout much of Roman and pre-Roman
Western Europe
Still spoken today in the British Isles and Britanny,
France
Continental Celtic vs Insular Celtic
Insular Celtic
Divided into Irish (Goidelic) and British (Brythonic)
Goidelic spread through Irish migration
Brythonic replaced earlier languages (e.g. Pictish)
Welsh is the direct descendant of Brythonic
, o Roman Britain: The Conquest
The North Sea was regarded as the boundary of the human
world
Britain lay in the territory of the god Oceanus
Caesar conquered Gaul between 58 and 50 BCE and invaded
Britain in 55 or 54 BCE
Setting up client relationships with local tribes
Claudius decided to conquer the island outright in 43 CE
Out of personal ambition and because of British
aggression
By 60 CE Romans were attacking Anglesey
The last stronghold of independence
But Boudicca, queen of the Iceni’s, rebellion
Romans forces were distant and scattered
Before control was reasserted rebels had sacked the
centres of Romanized Britain
o Camulodunum (Colchester)
o Verulamium (St. Albans)
o Londinium (London)
It would take until 69 – 96 CE for Roman civilization to really
spread
The conquest of Wales was complete by 78 CE
But Agricola’s invasion of Scotland failed
Shortage of manpower
By 90 CE reduction of the British garrison
Need for a permanent frontier in the north
Construction of Hadrian’s Wall
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