Prehistory30,000 BC: Although covered in a huge ice sheet, the topography of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England is much as it is today; sea levels fluctuating due to the effects of the Ice Ages.10,000 BC: Though much of the land is still glaciated, the first prehistoric settlers of Scotland arrive, probably by the Northern Ice sheet extending from Southern Norway to the Orkney Islands and Caithness. The land is covered in dense forest which is home to elk, deer, wild boar, goats, bears, wolves and many species of birds. Fruit and nuts were plentiful as were fish, shellfish and edible seaweed. The first humans were nomadic, living in skin shelters and/or caves, they would stay in an area for a while until the resources were nearly exhausted and then move on to a different area. They used flint tools of surprising sophistication which enabled them to make arrow heads and spear tips, knives and axeheads which assisted them to become more efficient hunters. The prehistory of Scotland and Ireland is paradoxical in that these two countries, after Iceland, may have been the last part of Europe to be occupied by man, probably less than 10,000 years ago, and yet they still have one of the richest archaeological heritages in western Europe. The earliest settlers arrived in Ireland, in the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age period. They crossed by land bridge from Scotland. These people were mainly hunters. See Note 10,000-2000 BC and see what archeology is finding out about them and the Ceide Fields of Co Mayo!. 8,500 BC: The earliest evidence yet is found at Cramond near Edinburgh of an early hunter-gatherer homestead, and the remains of elk bones, fish bones, shellfish and hazelnut shells show that they enjoyed a reasonable standard of living. 7000 BC: Evidence of first men in Ireland. 6500 BC: The Urumchi People settle in Eastern Turkestan - Northern China. They are clearly Celtic, with red or yellow hair, and with caucasian features. They speak a language known as Tocharian which is related to Gaelic through the Indo European group of languages. Well preserved mummies reveal the knowledge of weaving, and tartan cloth has been found, still as colourful as the day it was woven. Also grave goods have been recovered, including chariots, ploughs, horse harness, harrows, bronze and iron tools, pottery including a grain storage jar capable of holding 120 Kgs of grain, and intricate jewellery made of bronze, pewter, copper, silver and gold. Their techniques of preserving the dead by mummification were superior to the Egyptian as the soft internal organs were not removed but preserved in situ. 5000 BC: Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) brings farming to Ulster. 3900 BC: The oldest coastal dunes in Ireland, pre-dating a radiocarbon age of 5,315ħħ135 years BP, occur at Grangemore. 3000 BC: Sea level stabilized. Colonists of the neolithic, or new stone-age period, reached Ireland. These people were farmers. Remnants of their civilization have been excavated at Lough Gur in Co. Limerick. They traded in a limited form in products, such as axe-heads. One of their monuments, a megalithic tomb at Newgrange in Co. Meath, has survived. Visit the ancient tombs in Knowth, Boyne Valley. (Six pages, one photo per page). 2500 BC: Passage Graves at Newgrange, Co. Meath built; wheat cultivated at Newgrange; evidence of Boyne culture. 2250 BC: Portal Tombs such as the Kempe Stones in Newtownards. 2100 BC: Celtic tribes in Europe. Celtic and Italic migrants are quite certain to be among the first Indo-Europeans who penetrated into Central Europe. It is known that the task to connect exact archaeological cultures with exact tribes at that time is not yet completed, but still according to the most widespread version, Celts were represented by the "cord pottery" culture. In the late 3rd millennium they began to migrate west from the Low Danube (where they lived together with Italics and Illyrians). Soon Celts appeared in France and in South Germany. The date mentioned above can be regarded as a possible time of separation of the Celtic language from the Celto-Italo-Veneto-Illyrian language community. 2000 BC-1200 BC: First Celtic immigrants to the British Isles thought to have arrived. Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. Prospectors and metalworkers arrived. Metal deposits were discovered, and soon bronze and gold objects were made. Items (such as axe-heads, pottery and jewelery) made by these Bronze Age people, have been found. 1800 BC: Bronze Age commences in Ulster: tin (probably from Kernow - Cornwall) alloyed with copper to make bronze; gold worked. 1699 BC: Beginning of the Milesian Genealogies; Milesian Legends; and The Fianna. 1400 BC: Celts arrive in Spain. This date is the earliest in archaeology to mark the event, and usually scientists tend to think Celts appeared in Spain later. It depends on the exact archaeological culture which we connect with Celtic expansion. The most widespread opinion is to link Celts with the "urn culture" (German "Urnenfelderkultur", Spanish "campos de urnas") which spread from the Danube region to the west, to all Central Europe and later to Gaul and Iberia (Spain). But many believe than this culture unified all "Ancient European" ethnic groups of Indo-Europeans who came from Asia to Europe within one big migration wave. It probably included Celts, Italics, Illyrians and Venetic tribes, whose languages have much in common. But while Illyrians and Venetians remained on the Balkans, Italics penetrated into Italy, Celts were the only people who went farther to Gaul and Spain. In Spain first Indo-Europeans occupied mainly the northern regions. They did not mix with the aboriginal population, though their language was somehow transforming in phonetics and syntax. This first Celtic wave (the first Celts were called Beribraces in ancient sources) put the beginning to the Celtiberian language. 2500-1300 BC: Indo-European peoples spread from Pannonia to Dalmatia. It looks as if many European groups of the Indo-European family came to Europe, their future homeland, together. Celtic, Italic, Illyrian, Thracian, Venetic, Germanic, Baltic and Slavic peoples, after crossing South Russians Steppes, achieved Europe about 2500 BC and settled in the Middle Danube valley. Then, their population was not numerous, so they did not need to migrate. Later Italic tribes began moving to the south, then Celtic - to the west, Germanic - to the north. In about 1300 BC Illyrian and Venetic groups (or one group which was later divided into two) started migrating to the south, from Pannonia (modern Hungary) to Dalmatia (modern Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia). Probably one more tribe joined the Illyrians in their move - they were Italics, a part of them who later went west to Italy, where they united with their relatives who already lived there. The intrusion of Illyrians to Dalmatia seems to cause the first "Great Movement of Peoples" which will be described later: it started in Central Europe, and via the Balkans and Greece spread to the Mediterranean, causing other great changes in the ethnic and linguistic map of the Indo-European world.
1200 BC : Start of the Bronze Age; Urnfield Culture in central Europe; Celtic cultures in Gaul and Germania. From this time Celts gradually become the most powerful nation in Northern Europe. They easily and quickly spread over vast lands of France (Gaul), Germany, the Low Countries, the Alps, and penetrated on to the Iberian peninsula. Celts were wary and numerous which helped them to conquer lands of ancient European tribes and to widen their domain. Celtic tribes are believed to have been moving first along the Middle Danube to the west; later their cultures can be archaeologically traced in Southern Germany and in Central Gaul; Celts slowly assimilated the aboriginal peoples of those regions, and neolithic cultures which flourished in Europe before Indo-Europeans came, were preserved in the 12th century BC only in the Low Rhine lands, somewhere in the Alps and on the peninsula of Brittany. The British Isles were not yet visited by the Indo-European settlers, though continental cultures - Celtic, Germanic, Baltic and Greek - developed trade contacts with the islands. The Common Celtic language was at that time still very similar to its relatives Italic, Illyrian and Venetic. Besides, Celtic words and word elements were borrowed by Slavic and Germanic languages in this very early epoch.
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