Chapter One: Pre-historic Britain

Though the scribes that accompanied the Roman invaders of the greater part of the islands of Britain gave us the first written history of the land that came to be known as England, its history had already been writ large in its ancient monuments and archeological findings. Present day England is riddled with evidence of its long past, of the past that the Roman writers did not record, but which is indelibly etched in the landscape.

Where the green and cultivated land is not disfigured by cities and towns and villages of later civilizations -- those dark Satanic mills so loathed by William Blake -- one can see what seem to be anomalies on the hillsides. There are strange bumps and mounds; remains of terraced or plowed fields; irregular slopes that bespeak ancient hill forts; strangely carved designs in the chalk; jagged teeth of upstanding megaliths; stone circles of immense breadth and height; and ancient, mysterious wells and springs.

Humans settled here long before the islands broke away from the continent of Europe. They found there way here long before the seas formed what is now known as the English Channel, that body of water that protected the islands for so long, and that was to keep it out of much of the maelstrom that became medieval Europe. Thus England's peculiar character as part of an island nation came about through its very isolation. Early man came, settled, farmed, and built. His remains tell us much about his life style and his habits.

We know of the island's early inhabitants from what they left behind. In such sites as Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, and Swanscombe in Kent, the exploration of gravel pits has opened up a whole new way of seeing our ancient ancestors dating back all the way to the lower Paleolithic (early Stone Age). Here were deposited not only fine tools made of flint, including hand-axes, but also animal bones including those of elephants, rhinoceroses, cave-bears, lions, horses, deer, giant oxen, wolves and hares. From the remains, we can assume that man lived at the same time as these animals, most of which have long disappeared from the English landscape.

So we know that a thriving culture existed around 8,000 years ago in the misty, westward islands the Romans were to call Britannia, though some have suggested the occupation was only seasonal, due to the still-cold climate as the glacial period came slowly to an end. As the climate improved, however, there seems to have been an increase in the movements of people into Britain from the Continent, attracted by its forests, its wild game, abundant rivers and fertile southern plains. An added attraction was its relative isolation, giving protection against the fierce nomadic tribesmen that kept appearing out of the east, forever searching for new hunting grounds and perhaps, people to subjugate and enslave.

Next chapter:  Roman Britain