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The Romans famously made our first ‘proper’ roads. These hard-surfaced highways (laid on embankments called ‘aggers’) were built by their army for invasion purposes. From AD 43 – when the army of Emperor Claudius began their conquest – troops could move rapidly and transport supplies using wheeled freight wagons, a novelty in Britain. They did not use coins, nor did they have large settlements to act of political centres for the tribe, and there is no evidence for a dynasty of Dumnonian kings. In Celtic studies, 'Britons' refers to native speakers of the Brittonic languages in the ancient and medieval periods, "from the first evidence of such speech in the pre-Roman Iron Age, until the central Middle Ages". [2] Pearson, Mike; Cleal, Ros; Marshall, Peter; Needham, Stuart; Pollard, Josh; Richards, Colin; Ruggles, Clive; Sheridan, Alison; Thomas, Julian; etal. (2007). "The Age of Stonehenge" (PDF). Antiquity. 811 (313): 617–639. doi: 10.1017/S0003598X00095624. S2CID 162960418. Iron Age Britons lived in organised tribal groups, ruled by a chieftain. As people became more numerous, wars broke out between opposing tribes. This was traditionally interpreted as the reason for the building of hill forts, although the siting of some earthworks on the sides of hills undermined their defensive value, hence "hill forts" may represent increasing communal areas or even 'elite areas'. However some hillside constructions may simply have been cow enclosures. Although the first had been built about 1500 BC, hillfort building peaked during the later Iron Age. There are around 3,300 structures that can be classed as hillforts or similar "defended enclosures" within Britain. [53] By about 350 BC many hillforts went out of use and the remaining ones were reinforced. Pytheas was quoted as writing that the Britons were renowned wheat farmers. Large farmsteads produced food in industrial quantities and Roman sources note that Britain exported hunting dogs, animal skins and slaves.

The Deceangli, the Ordovices and the Silures were the three main tribe groups who lived in the mountains of what is today called Wales. A unique feature of the Durotriges at this time was that they still occupied hillforts. Although hillforts are one of the most well known features of the Iron Age, most were no longer occupied at turn of the first millennium. Best known of these Durotrigean hillforts is that of Maiden Castle near Dorchester, others include South Cadbury Castle and Hod Hill. Human footprints have been found preserved on English shores before the end of the last Ice Age ( roughly 11,500 years ago). Then, over time, well-trodden paths developed. Donated to the Bodlian Library in the 19th century, the Gough map is the earliest known map of Britain to give a detailed representation of the country’s roads. 4. Portolan Chart by Pietro Visconte – c. 1325

Cross channel trade was not an important source of goods for the Durotriges, who preferred local products. In the north, their territory started at Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth and stretched as far south as Northumberland in northern England. Caer Lundein, encompassing London, St. Albans and parts of the Home Counties, [30] fell from Brittonic hands by 600 AD, and Bryneich, which existed in modern Northumbria and County Durham with its capital of Din Guardi (modern Bamburgh) and which included Ynys Metcaut ( Lindisfarne), had fallen by 605 AD becoming Anglo-Saxon Bernicia. [31] Caer Celemion (in modern Hampshire and Berkshire) had fallen by 610 AD. Elmet, a large kingdom that covered much of modern Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire and likely had its capital at modern Leeds, was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons in 627 AD. Pengwern, which covered Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, was largely destroyed in 656 AD, with only its westernmost parts in modern Wales remaining under the control of the Britons, and it is likely that Cynwidion, which had stretched from modern Bedfordshire to Northamptonshire, fell in the same general period as Pengwern, though a sub-kingdom of Calchwynedd may have clung on in the Chilterns for a time. [ citation needed] Nora McGreevy (2020). "Study Rewrites History of Ancient Land Bridge Between Britain and Europe". Smithsonian Magazine . Retrieved 3 April 2022. The P-Celtic ethnonym has been reconstructed as * Pritanī, from Common Celtic * kʷritu, which became Old Irish cruth and Old Welsh pryd. [2] This likely means "people of the forms", and could be linked to the Latin name Picti (the Picts), which is usually explained as meaning "painted people". [2] The Old Welsh name for the Picts was Prydyn. [10] Linguist Kim McCone suggests the name became restricted to inhabitants of the far north after Cymry displaced it as the name for the Welsh and Cumbrians. [11] The Welsh prydydd, "maker of forms", was also a term for the highest grade of a bard. [2]

The ruler of the area was King Cogidubnus, who started the great palace at Fishbourne, outside Chichester, after the Conquest. Recent light detection and ranging (LiDAR) surveys of Wallingford Estate, a sprawling preserve in Northumberland maintained by the National Trust, show historic farming systems, gardens and Iron Age settlements, as well as former areas of woodland. The scans were taken ahead of the replanting of 75,000 native trees at Wallingford. Mesolithic lifestyles | The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework". Scottish Archaeological Research Framework. 16 April 2012. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020 . Retrieved 3 June 2023.

Dubunni

The roads' impermeable design permitted travel in all seasons and weather. Following the w Alonso, Santos, Carlos Flores, Vicente Cabrera, Antonio Alonso, Pablo Martín, Cristina Albarrán, Neskuts Izagirre, Concepción de la Rúa and Oscar García. 2005. The place of the Basques in the European Y-chromosome diversity landscape. European Journal of Human Genetics 13:1293–1302.