EN392 Lecture 1: Lecture 1 - Movie

EN 372

Movie – A History of Britain, Beginnings

• Orkney has circles of standing stones, revealing what is left of the stone age

• Skyra Brae lies a prolithic community preserved and uncovered in 1850 by a ferocious sea storm

• Houses build from sandstone in the area appear to look like huts which were connected

• Has everything you could want from a village except for a church or a pub

• During Neolithic, houses were half in the ground for comfort and safety

• Necessities would be a hearth they warmed up around and cooked and a small tank to keep

fishing bait. Beds had fur and hay added on

o Tomb raiders would often leave graffiti

• Climate became colder and wetter, leaving the stone buildings to be covered by layers of peat,

drifting sand, and grass

• Great stone circles, the largest at Avery, but most spectacular at Stone Henge

• Almost as much land was farmed in the iron age as in 1914

• One spectacular difference from Skyra Brae was windowless towers

• Sprung up along mainland as well as edges

• Lots of metalwork

o Pins, broaches, and armour left

o Stylized bronze horses

• 55 bc Caesar launched gallies across the channel twice. Plans triumphed both times by British

weather (ran directly into a storm sending them back to Gaul)

o Claudius tried the second time 100 years later in an attempt of massive force (40K

troops). He succeeded where Caesar had failed. He seized the towns, striking the British

aristocracy. Gave residents a trip to Rome to reduce their hostility and encourage

cohabitation => Fishbourne palace as big as 4 football pitches

• Many Brits encourage Roman connections

o Queen Boudika resisted the collaboration

• East Anglia declared a slave province. Boudika was stoned and her daughters raped in front of

her. She led a firestorm, burning Roman settlements, leading them to fall back to the Great