| 3000 / 4000 Years Ago |
3000 YEARS AGO
The late bronze age, the early iron age and the Celts.
3000 years ago, before the iron age, bronze was the only metal that that man could use for manufacturing tools and containers. For example cups for drinking out of and tools like plough tips for tilling the land for farming. Bronze is made from tin and copper heated together.
1300 years ago the established civilisations of the warm Mediterranean and middle eastern areas were running out of tin and this caused people to travel far and wide to look for this vital metal. Tin was found to be plentiful in Britain and this caused the Celts who lived in eastern Europe, north of the centres of civilisation in Mesopotamia (Iraq) to move westward and settle in Britain.
A few hundred years later the same Celts brought the technology of iron smelting to Britain and once again Britain was found to have plenty of the right stuff (Iron Ore). Iron revolutionised life as it made both stronger ploughs and hence more food could be grown, much better axes for chopping down trees for more farm land and of course much better weapons (spears, swords and arrow tips) for killing the enemy!
Celts were generally of darkish complexion with black straight hair. They loved fighting often doing so naked with painted bodies. They would yell and scream to generally frighten the enemy. British Celts lived in family groups or larger family tribes in hilltop camps which they defended to their death as the Romans were later to discover. British Celts could spin both sheep wool and spin and weave linen made from locally grown flax.
Trade
British Celts developed a profitable trade with nearby Europe down as far as Spain. Main products were copper, tin silver and gold as well as animal skins and wool for clothes. In return they received bronze “table ware”, tools and ornaments made from bronze and Amber (an attractively coloured resin from fir trees which dries rock hard.
4000 YEARS AGO
The Bronze age and the age of the BEAKER people Around 2500 BC the Beaker people arrived in Britain from Europe, so called as they brought with them the skill of making cups and larger containers from copper and clay (pottery). Watertight vessels enabled the Beaker people to heat liquids and heat solids (metals) until they became liquids. By experimenting with heating copper and tin together, both easily found in Britain, the Beaker people first made Bronze and later iron from iron ores.
They also could spin and weave initially using mainly sheep’s wool. So this time also saw the change from people wearing animal skins to wearing woollen clothes fairly similar to the clothes we wear today. The Beaker people also were probably the first peoples in Britain to start riding horses rather than hunting them for meat.
Early towns were being created in the worlds warm fertile river valleys like Babylon in Iraq’s Tigris/Euphrates region, Jericho on the Jordan, and cities by the rivers Nile, Indus (Pakistan) and Yellow (China).
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