Prehistoric Britain

Britain has been inhabited by man for nearly half a million years, during which time there have been a great many changes in lifestyles and in its surrounding landscape. In this book Timothy Darvill makes use of available archeological evidence to examine the development of human societies in Britain from earliest times to the Roman Conquest. Darvill gives special attention to six themes that are traced through all phases of subsistence, technology, ritual, trade, society, and population. He first presents the background to prehistoric studies in Britain, in terms of the development of interest in the subject and the changes wrought by new techniques (such as radiocarbon dating) and new theories (such as the emphasis on social archaeology.) He then traces the development of society from the hunter-gatherer groups of the last Ice Age, through the development of farming, the introduction of metalworking, and on to the rise of highly organized societies living on the fringes of the mighty Roman Empire in the first century A.D. Throughout, emphasis is given to documenting and explaining changes within the prehistoric communities, and to exploring the regional variations found around Britain. In this way the evidence that can be seen in the British countryside and in museums is placed firmly in its proper context. Darvill rounds off his study with a review of the effects of prehistoric communities on life today. With over 100 illustrations, this is a unique review of Britain's ancient past as revealed by modern archaeology.