4000-2200 BC Neolithic

South-west England has many of the country’s most impressive surviving Neolithic monuments. In the east of the region in particular (modern Wiltshire and Somerset), we find areas that have been gradually exploited and altered by generations of Neolithic monument builders to create vast ceremonial landscapes.

Large ceremonial structures like those at Avebury and Stonehenge would have taken thousands of man-hours to build. The presence of so many of these monuments suggests that by the time they were constructed, around 3000 BC onwards, the scattered settlements of the earliest farmers had developed into larger, more settled communities. In the west of the region (modern Devon and Cornwall) people seem to have built fewer of these large monuments. This may be because the land here was less suitable for farming and so could not support large communities like those in the east of the area.

Around the same time as these monuments were being built, the practice of using communal tombs began to be replaced by individual burial. However, in the far west, people seem to have continued to follow the old traditions for quite a while longer than elsewhere. This was not necessarily due to isolation or lack of contact with new ideas. Pots made of clay which is unique to the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall have been found in other areas of England. This shows that Neolithic people in the area were participating in exchange networks outside their community.