Лекции по "Истории Англии"

   1.The first inhabitants of Great Britain.

2.Stonehenge.

3.The Beaker People

4.The Iberians.

5.Celts.  

The very first stages of the existence of people on the British Isles are frequently described as prehistoric and referred to as unwritten history of Britain.

Britain has not always been an island. It became one only after the end of the last ice age, about 8500 years ago. The temperature rose and the ice cap melted … the lower lie land that is now under the North Sea and the English Channel. The early inhabitants of the British Isles were old stone age man and middle stone age man. Their main occupation were hunting and they started to … animals instead of … People discovered too that cereals and berries grew better on country side cleared of… woodland. Rather early inhabitants soon realized that the sea can be their friend too. Campsites in the most … areas were soon better. And these campsites include The Lower Ben Valley, in and around Loch-Ness (Scotland) in the North-East of Ireland and the beaches of Devon and Oxford, where of course  sea food was (crabs, lobsters, ousters), and that provided a varied diet. From 5000 BC new stone age man (Neolithic) began arriving from the… And those people kept animals and grew corn crops and they knew how to make pottery. Appearance: they were small, dark and long-headed people. They can be forefathers of  dark-haired inhabitants  of Wales and Cornwall today. Neolithic man made his mark on the landscape with great ritual monument. And up to 4400 BC bodies … covered with earth. Now following continental buried procedures tombs to hold up dead bodies were built, so the landscape became now visibly changeable. 2000 years of relatively stabile climate made the island being covered by woodland. The highest mountains and the extreme north and coast of …and …  the regions where there grew trees. The first trees to return after the ice were those that could survive in colder climate: birch, sallow, aspen. Than all had appeared of several thousand years warm climate trees began to appear: pine, hazel, English oak it was within these woods that settlers made bases for hunting and consequently … … These settlements had skin tents with … cloth to give proper shelter for the people who lived there. Sites such as those discovered at Churchhill, West Asseks … At Hard Rock as … as … … peninsula was used not only for making … but for so-called money. Money at that time was exchanging the weapons or kettle or other goods.   ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In the valley of the Lake District  … it still shows indentations created by … markers  who were prepared to risk their lives for just a small piece of soul as they believed that their souls had very many magical powers. And working the land and crop growing made the people more knowledgeable about their own land. Plants and …. Animals were employed taking over crops, a simple crop cultivation they used. 

It was in this changing, often very violent times that England’s most mystical objects – henges. They represent large circular monuments. One particular … stonehenge is in Willshire ( всего 900 stones). They are mainly situated in West Kennet  and Avebury and in Willshire. It is believed that these very henges were used for communal rituals. At these time the gods (языческие) were: the sun, the moon, the sky and the earth. And the worship was undertaken with … death being shat out from the temples. So they didn’t believe in death, they believed in a new life after it. The main henge is Stonehenge which is situated on the flat platform of Salisbury Plain (Southern England). Stonehenge remain unique because of the sophisticated way the blocks fit one another into a carefully complete stone. They were built between 3100-2300 BC.

Mysteries:

1.How was it built

2.Purpose 

1. The giant people, who lived in Egypt came to England carrying all these stones.
2. The devil’s creation. Once there lived a devil and he liked to puzzle people.          

The Stonehenge was used by druids for ceremonies.

The druids were very powerful. They were the religious group who worshiped the sun. most of people consider them odd, because they go to Stonehenge where they perform different religious ceremonies when the appropriate day of a year comes (the most important one is 21 of June).  The Stonehanhe was a sort of a capital to which the chiefs of the tribes came from all over the Britain. And nowadays  Stonehenge is not only a tourists attraction it is functioning as a gathering point for some minorities groups (the hippies, new age travellers). The main thing is now to protect stones from damage (because: some years ago some minority group made a fire in the middle of Stonehenge and damaged a lot of stones.) Some people say that if you touch some stone you’ll be happy. 

After 2400 BC new groups of people arrived in Britain from  Europe. They were round-headed and strongly built. It’s not known whether they were invaded or invited by Neolithic people because of their military skills and knew how to make many things. All in all they became the leaders of the tribe. Their arrival is marked by the first individual graves. And these graves were furnished with pottery beakers and from which these people were called the Beaker people. They probably spoke an Indo-European language they seem to have brought a single culture to the whole territory of Great Britain. The also brought skills to make bronze tools and they replaced old ones. But they didn’t want to break everything and they accepted many of the old traditions and Stonehenge remained the most important center till 1300 BC.  

About 3000 years BC many parts of Europe, including the British Isles were inhabited by people who came to be known as the Iberians because some of their предки are still found  in the northern stain called the Iberian peninsula. We don’t know much about these ancient people because they lived they lived on the territory of Britain long ago. But we can learn quite a lot from their skeletons, graves, weapons and remains of their dwellings. The Iberians used stone weapons add tools, but they knew a   very important art – the art of griming and polishing stone. And they could make smooth objects of stone with sharp edges and coins. They were the most advanced.