Pablo’s Woodlife

Who are we, or more pertinently, who do we think we are? The major invasions of Britain came from the Romans, Vikings, Anglo Saxons and Normans, so you can really take your pick from that little lot. But who were the original Britons and more to the point, were they Britons at all?

It has been suggested there was no such thing until the 17th century, when James I of England and VI of Scotland sought to establish a pan-British monarchy. Until then Britain was just a geographical entity and the people of Britain were just a constantly shifting base of multi-cultural groups that had migrated to the Isles over a period of several thousand years with little single identity.

There is evidence of migration into Britain as long as 700,000 years ago although it’s thought that the changing climate of retreating and advancing ice and intermittent  land access from the continent assisted in the many failed colonisation attempts. The last attempts 12,000 years ago were more successful.

Around 6000 BCE the British Isles was finally and permanently separated from the continent. Until about 4000 BCE it was covered by woodland and the inhabitants were hunter gatherers who lived in small family groups. At around this time the hunter-gatherers started to clear the woodland which was helped by a huge outbreak of Dutch elm disease and methods of using fire to hunt. It was thought that communities had to emerge and enlarge to assist in the vast undertaking of creating clearings. Agricultural practices had started, which originated from what we now know as the middle-eastern countries. It took thousands of years to reach Britain and thousands more to become fully established.

Although these early people left no account of themselves, it is suggested that they were mainly caucasoid as were the tribal groups of Europe. Perhaps regional environments or tasks changed their features over generations, and it is certainly true that there was much regional diversity in terms of appearance, biology and customs by the time the Roman first invaded as reported by the Romans themselves.

Between 3000 BCE and 1500 BCE the communities continued to swell and monuments, burial sites and pottery were developed at least leaving a visible legacy. Farming and domestication of animals were the main source of food and it’s suspected that many settlements or tribes immerged, merged, split or simply phased out. Conflicts and contact was made with more distant groups.

By 700 BCE it was suspected that there were a number of large tribal areas made up of increasingly bigger settlements. The land had been divided up with banks, and track ways were used to move animals. The first eye-witness accounts of these tribes came from Julius Caesar himself who invaded in 54 BCE. Although he may have lumped many of them together for convenience, there is no doubt that there were identifiable tribal communities because of similarities in customs, traits, language and appearance. It is the Latin names given to these tribes that are familiar today: for example Trinovantes, Iceni, Silures, Cornovii, Selgovae. It appears (surprisingly) that the one thing they were not… is Celtic.

“…[Celts] was an invention of the 18th century; the name was not used earlier. The idea came from the discovery around 1700 that the non-English island tongues relate to that of the ancient continental Gauls, who really were called Celts. This ancient continental ethnic label was applied to the wider family of languages. But ‘Celtic’ was soon extended to describe insular monuments, art, culture and peoples, ancient and modern: island ‘Celtic’ identity was born, like Britishness, in the 18th century.”

So says Dr Simon James in Peoples of Britian. He goes on to say that the preceding bronze age did not arise out of waves of continental ‘Celtic’ invasions however there would be similarities in respect of culture, language  (called Brythonic language – the nearest is apparently like today’s Cornish) and connections; but to call the culture ‘Celtic’ as a whole is (and has been) misleading.

So, we leave ourselves at 43 CE just before the second (main) Roman invasion, which would immerse our tribal culture  into a Greco-Roman one but still without significantly changing the face of the population. This huge culture change would eventually swamp whatever culture the inhabitants of the Isles would have had. So I am suggesting we return to the pre-Roman “tribes” to look for our true ancestral “island” identity.

So, what tribe were you? Have a look here to find out.

The excellent drawings are sourced from:

http://www.framearch.co.uk/t5/