Unit 1: A preview

Unit 1: Ancient Britain

1. Place of origin?

2. Period of occupation

3. Physical traits?

4. Main activities?

5. Language?

A story of Invasions

"History is governed by geography"

5. The Danes

3. The Romans

2. The Celts

4. The Anglo-Saxons

Geographic obstacles

1. Who were the earliest

inhabitants of the British Isles?

- Mountain ranges of Wales, North-west England, and of Scotland

• The earliest known inhabitants of the island
• They spoke a Celtic language
• They were of Indo-european descent
• They are the ancestors of modern Scots, Welsh and Irish

• They established in the islands in 43 ad.
• They built towns and roads.
• They had control over the Celts.
• Latin, their language, was the most powerful language in the islands at the time.
• They left in the V century.

Paleolithic Humans

• Also known as Scandinavians or Vikings.
• They invaded the Islands from the North, destroying and burning everything they found.
• In King Alfred's time, the Danelaw was established.
• They spoke a Germanic language that eventually merged with Old English.

• Three tribes -the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes invaded England in the V Century.
• They spoke different dialects of Germanic that later became Old English.
• They were fierce warriors.
• They forced the Celts to move northwards and westwards.
• In time they became farmers.

Neolithic Humans

Celtic Tribes

- Flat lands and fertile soil along the southern and eastern shores of England

Successive invasions of the Island from the Continent