World Timelines - British Isles - 8000-4000 BC Mesolithic

British Isles

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Map of British Isles - 8000-4000 BC Mesolithic

Events

8000 BC

First people begin to colonise Scotland

8000 BC

First people arrive in Ireland

8000 BC

Figurative art produced at Kendrick’s Cave in Llandudno

7700 BC

Earliest evidence for Mesolithic tools found at Star Carr, Yorkshire

7700 BC

Around this time site at Thatcham, Berkshire, in use

7700 BC

Around this time site at Daylight Rock, Caldey Island, in use

7600 BC

Circular building erected at Howick, Northumberland

7500 BC

Broomhill in Hampshire occupied

7400 BC

Around this time site at Deepcar, Sheffield, in use

7400 BC

Around this time site at Misterton Carr, Nottinghamshire, in use

7400 BC

Site at Dozmary Pool, Cornwall, in use

7200 BC

Around this time site at Warcock Hill North, Derbyshire, in use

7100 BC

Beginning of the use of Aveline’s Hole

7000 BC

Last land bridge connecting east England to mainland Europe covered by rising sea-levels

7000 BC

Site at Crandons Cross, Devon, in use

7000 BC

Around this time site at Longmoor, Hampshire, in use

6800 BC

Horsham point' tools being made at Longmoor, Hampshire

6500 BC

Britain becomes an island

6210 BC

Around this time site at Bart's Shelter, Cumbria, occupied

6000 BC

Dartmoor settled by hunter gatherers

6000 BC

Date of earliest human remains found in Ireland; at Primrose Grange, Co. Sligo

6000 BC

Early settlement at Overton Farm near Manchester

5970 BC

Around this time site at Monk Moors, Cumbria, occupied

5500 BC

Most significant Mesolithic site in Wales, Goldcliff, Newport, in use

5500 BC

Fairly open woodlands change to closed forests

5473 BC

Around this time site at Williamsons Moss, Cumbria, occupied

5000 BC

First chambered cairns in Scotland

5000 BC

Over the next 1000 years the site at Westward Ho!, Devon, is in use

5000 BC

Elm and hazel trees begin to spread across northern England

4934 BC

House structure built at Bowman's Farm, Hampshire

4790 BC

Date of human femur found at Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire

4500 BC

Farming and domestication of plants and animals introduced

4500 BC

Oak and pine trees begin to spread across northern England

4500 BC

Croxteth Park used by groups of prehistoric hunter-gatherers

4300 BC

First Long barrow burials and Causeway settlements constructed

4200 BC

Round bottomed pottery first produced

4000 BC

Farming reaches British Isles

4000 BC

People clear forests for agricultural practices, many uplands left bare

4000 BC

Start of megalithic tomb building

British Isles

8000-4000 BC Mesolithic

Britain changed dramatically during the Mesolithic period. At the beginning, Ice Age conditions began to warm rapidly, reaching present-day temperatures in a matter of decades. Forests developed, and animals such as red deer, roe deer and boar flourished in the milder climate and wooded landscapes.

At this time, the British Isles was a single landmass, connected to mainland Europe at the western end of the north-west European Plain. The Plain was a low-lying landscape that stretched from the north of England to southern Scandinavia. This land was gradually covered by rising sea-levels, so that by about 6500 BC the land bridge was covered by water and the British Isles were formed.

The people who occupied the British Isles during the Mesolithic period were nomadic groups, who lived by hunting and gathering their food. No plants or animals had yet been domesticated, except for dogs.

Archaeologists divide the period into an earlier and a later phase because of differences in environment and the tools that were made. These changes seem to have occurred around 6500 BC, when Britain once more became an island.

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