Summary: culture and history of the United Kingdom
Ethnic diversity
• Tensions between the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon elements in the British Isles
o Result: of a long history of immigrations
• First settlements (500,00BC)
o Old Stone Age: hunter-gatherers and fishers
o New Stone Age (4,000 – 3,000BC): farming, stone and earth monuments
The builders of Stonehenge (illiterate people)
First written sources about the people living at the Isles of Britain were
sources from the Roman invaders who came much later
Stonehenge: one of the remnants of those civilizations
• Some political entities on the island way the henges are
build + require a lot of organization between people + free
time to build these things
• The henges are built in stages (3,000 – 1,500BC)
• People did not have the wheel yet speculations: moved by
creating a track of logs / create earthen tracks and grease them
with animal fat
• Some stones came from 25km away
• Function remains unclear
• The way it is oriented aligns in winter with the sunset on the
winter solstice it aligns with the sunset on the shortest day
of the year it also aligns with the sunrise on the summer
solstice it aligns with the longest day of the year we may
assume that the monument had an astronomical function
• There are human bones found around the monument it
could be a burial side
1
, Summary: culture and history of the United Kingdom
Orkneys: ring o’Brodgar
• Built more or less around the same time as Stonehenge
• North coast of Scotland
• It shows some sort of cohesion in culture of the British Isle
they were building those monuments all around the British
Isles
Uffington White Horse
• All round England
• Drawings in the ground at some point the ground is really
chalky, light in color
• 110 meters long
• Can only be observed from a nearby hill
• 600 BC: Celtic people from mainland Europe (Eastern Europe: Spain)
o Iron Age Civilization
• 200 BC: more Celtic/Belgic tribes
o First to call themselves: Britons
• 55 BC: first Roman invasions
• The Celtic Fringe
o Shows where the Celtic tribes originated
o And where they spread
o Yellow shows where Celtic people and languages still exist today: France +
Wales + Scotland + Islands around Scotland + West Coast of Ireland
2
Ethnic diversity
• Tensions between the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon elements in the British Isles
o Result: of a long history of immigrations
• First settlements (500,00BC)
o Old Stone Age: hunter-gatherers and fishers
o New Stone Age (4,000 – 3,000BC): farming, stone and earth monuments
The builders of Stonehenge (illiterate people)
First written sources about the people living at the Isles of Britain were
sources from the Roman invaders who came much later
Stonehenge: one of the remnants of those civilizations
• Some political entities on the island way the henges are
build + require a lot of organization between people + free
time to build these things
• The henges are built in stages (3,000 – 1,500BC)
• People did not have the wheel yet speculations: moved by
creating a track of logs / create earthen tracks and grease them
with animal fat
• Some stones came from 25km away
• Function remains unclear
• The way it is oriented aligns in winter with the sunset on the
winter solstice it aligns with the sunset on the shortest day
of the year it also aligns with the sunrise on the summer
solstice it aligns with the longest day of the year we may
assume that the monument had an astronomical function
• There are human bones found around the monument it
could be a burial side
1
, Summary: culture and history of the United Kingdom
Orkneys: ring o’Brodgar
• Built more or less around the same time as Stonehenge
• North coast of Scotland
• It shows some sort of cohesion in culture of the British Isle
they were building those monuments all around the British
Isles
Uffington White Horse
• All round England
• Drawings in the ground at some point the ground is really
chalky, light in color
• 110 meters long
• Can only be observed from a nearby hill
• 600 BC: Celtic people from mainland Europe (Eastern Europe: Spain)
o Iron Age Civilization
• 200 BC: more Celtic/Belgic tribes
o First to call themselves: Britons
• 55 BC: first Roman invasions
• The Celtic Fringe
o Shows where the Celtic tribes originated
o And where they spread
o Yellow shows where Celtic people and languages still exist today: France +
Wales + Scotland + Islands around Scotland + West Coast of Ireland
2
