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| c.9800 | Late Magdalenian CRESWELLIAN Culture in Britain from 11,000 ends. Artifacts include trapezoidal backed blades, smaller bladelets, end scrapers made from long, straight blades, Baltic amber, mammoth ivory and animal teeth and bone. These are used to make harpoons, awls, beads and needles. They are cannibals, and also hunt wild horses and red deer. | 9800 wikCrs |
| c.9700 | YOUNGER DRYAS, a short glacial period from 10,900, ends. For several hundred years the forests of Britain and north Europe have tundras, howling winds and drifting snow. | 9700 u2Scn, waYD, wikYD 9700=9610 pnas, 8000 mxfld |
| c.9500 | IRELAND V is separated from Britain by raising water level. The land bridge will reappear as short-term fluctuations interfere with average sea levels before submerging permanently. | 9500 hifiBHK, wikPB |
| c.9300 |  STAR CARR V founded on the west bank of Paleolake Flixton near the current east coast of Yorkshire. Leaves nearly 200 projectile, or harpoon, points made of flint or red deer and elk antler preserved in waterlogged peat. Artifacts include barbed fishhooks, worked amber, shale, haematite, iron pyrites, a decorated pendant, possibly the oldest known Mesolithic art in Britain. Post holes indicate wood-frame structures. Inhabited sporadically until c.4880. |
photo: Rodw 9300 wikSC 9335-9275 wikTPB 7500 MCAW |
| c.9000 | MESOLITHIC Period begins in Britain until 4000 | 9000 wikNBI |
| c.8300 |  AVELINE'S HOLE, a cave at Burrington Combe in the limestone on the north side of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, leaves the most Mesolithic human remains found in Britain. Over 50 individuals, but only 2 complete skeletons. |
photo: Rodw 9000 u2GT 84-8200 wikAH |
| c.8000 | At least 4 mesolithic postholes are dug at the future site of STONEHENGE V in Wiltshire. These hold pine posts 0.75m in diameter. | 8000 wikSth |
| c.8000 | WARREN FIELD calendar monument, 12 pits believed to correlate with phases of the Moon and created by hunter-gatherers near Crathes Castle, in Aberdeenshire, and used as a lunisolar calendar (the oldest yet found). The pits align on the southeast horizon, and a prominent topographic point associated with sunrise on the midwinter solstice (thus providing an annual astronomical correction concerning the passage of time as indicated by the moon, the asynchronous solar year, and associated seasons). | 8000 wikWF |
| c.8000 | IRELAND V, an island from 9500, first inhabited. Paleolithic until 6000. | 8000 mxfld |
| c.7600 | A building exists at the Λ STAR CARR site. | 7600 wikPB |
| c.7600 | 
Howick in Northumberland has evidence of a large circular dwelling. People have stone tools wood for construction and fuel, ate fish, seals, sea birds and eggs, shellfish and hazelnuts. HOWICK HOUSE, built on the coast and reconstructed here, was occupied for 100 years. |
photo Andrew Curtis 7600 wikHH, wikPB, wikTPB |
| c.7300 | DOGS domesticated in Britain. | 7300 TTPC |
| c.7150 |  CHEDDAR MAN dies, age 20-25, in or near Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge on the southwest slope of Mendip Hills, Somerset. Oldest complete [nearly] human skeleton in Britain. Thought to be 1.66m tall, weighing 66kg, with blue-green eyes, dark brown or black hair, and dark or dark-to-black skin, typical of Western Europeans of the time. |
photos Geni Werner Ustorf 85-8000 wikCM 7150 wikGC, wikTPB |
| c.7000 | IRELAND V, inhabited from 8000 , has wattle huts along the coastal routes and inland waterways. Most Irish, particularly in north and west have blood type O, pointing to pre-Celtic physical inheritance, believed to have come via the Atlantic from the Mediterranean. | 7000 mxfld |
| c.6500 |  BRITAIN is separated from the rest of Europe. DOGGERLAND, the landbridge to the continent via Netherlands is submerged by rising water levels. The Dogger Bank, a high area of Doggerland, remains an island until at least 5000. |
7500 MCAW 6500 PW 13, wikPB, 65-6200 wikDgr, wikTPB 5900 mxfld |
| 6000 | Λ IRELAND V , in Paleolithic Period from 8000, turns Mesolithic until 3000. | 6000 B76 3-283 |
| c.6000 | WHEAT of a variety grown in the Middle East is evidenced on island of Wight. | 7000 hifiBHK 6000 wikTPB |
| c.6000 | BOULDNOR CLIFF is occupied between Britain and the Isle of Wight, now submerged under 11m of water. Artifacts include many burnt flints, mounds of timbers and pits dug into the ground. | 8-4000 wikBC |
| c.5000 | The DOGGER BANK an island from 6500 between Britain and Denmark, sinks because of rising water levels. | 5000 wikDgr, 3700 u2LDE |
| c.4600 | ORONSAY Island in the Inner Hebrides west of Scotland shows evidence of humans living on seafood. | 4600 wikOC, wikTPB |
| c.4000 | AGRICULTURE, in Netherlands from 4500, spreads to Britain. Domestic animals exist in Britain. | 4500 wikPB 4000 TAWH 16 |
| c.4000 | MESOLITHIC Period in Britain from 9000 ends. NEOLITHIC Period begins in Britain until 2500. 1st agriculture is evidenced. | 4100 wikNBI, 4000 wikPB, wikTPB |
| c.4000 |  TARDENOISIAN Culture, in France and Britain from 9000, ends. |
4000 wikTrd |
| c.3838 | The POST TRACK (world's oldest known timber trackway) biult across a now largely drained marsh in Somerset England. | 3838 wikPT, wikSL, wikTop |
| c.3807 | 
The SWEET TRACK (world's 2nd oldest known timber trackway) biult across a now largely drained marsh in Somerset England along the earlier Post Track. |
map: Nilfanion 3807 wikST, 3800 wikPT, wikSL, wikTop |
| c.3800 |  WINDMILL HILL 2km northwest of Avebury Wiltshire is first occupied. Largest known causewayed enclosure in Britain. But the only evidence is a series of pits apparently dug by an agrarian society using Hembury pottery. |
photo: Brian Robert Marshall map: Ordnance Survey 3800 wikWHA |
| c.3700 | WINDMILL HILL, occupied from 3800, 3 concentric segmented ditches are dug around the hilltop site, the outermost 365m in diameter. Causeways interrupting the ditches vary in width from a few cm to 7m. Material from the ditches is piled up to create internal banks; the deepest ditches and largest banks are on the outer circuit. There is also a rectangular mortuary enclosure. | 3700 mxfld, wikWHA |
| c.3700 | KNOCH IVEAGH cairn (manmade stone pile) built on a hill near Rathfriland in north Λ Ireland V. A small chamber covered by a mound of stone and earth. Nothing relevant is said of it until the 6th century CE. | 4000 wikKIv, 3700 wikMgl |
| c.3600 | WINDMILL HILL Culture begins in south Britain until 3000. They raise cattle, sheep, pigs, and dogs, grow wheat, and mine flint. They leave large circular hill-top enclosures, causewayed enclosures, long barrows, leaf-shaped arrowheads, and polished stone axes. Pottery is well made and often decorated. Their worship involves stone circles. It trades with all close neighbors. | 3600 oxrWHC, no date: wikWHC |
| c.3590 | Neolithic massacre of 14 people, 3 of them probably killed by arrows at Wayland's Smithy, near Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. | 3590 hifiBHK |
| c.3500 | Λ STONEHENGE V CURSUS built on Salisbury plain in Wiltshire 700m north of future Stonehenge, as the first farmers clear the trees and develop the area. It is 3km long and 100 to 150m wide. The east ans south ditches are only 0.75m deep by 1.8m wide at the top. The west ditch is 2m deep by 2.75m wide. Building period is 3630-3375. Function is unknown, but believed to be ceremonial. | 3500 wikSth wikSthC |
| c.3500 |  CEIDE: flat topped hill fields consisting of extensive tracts of land enclosed by stone walls begin around Glenultra River on northwest coast of Λ Ireland. V Oldest known field systems in the world. |
map: Eroica 3500 wikCF, wikHAg |
| c.3500 | GARTH TSUNAMI off the Shetland Islands caused by earthquakes, submarine landslides, or a meteor impacts the Northern Isles, causes mass fatalities. | 3500 wikGT, wikTPB |
| c.3500 | Megalythic TOMBS and CIRCLES begin in Spain, Britanny, and Britain. | 3500 TAWH 16 3200 PW 14 |
| c.3400 |  WAUN MAWN "peat moor" a Neolithic stone circle is built in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire in West Wales. Diameter 110m. 4 stones remain: 1 standing and 3 prostrate. |
photo: Hansjoerg Lipp 3400 wikTop |
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photo: Tjp finn |
| c.3300 | NEWGRANGE monument is built on a rise overlooking River Boyne in Λ Ireland. V It is the main monument in the Bru na Boinne complex. | 3300 wikTop, 3200 wikNgr |
| c.3300 |  DORSET CURSUS built. It once stretched 10km thru the undulating chalkland of Cranborne Chase in east Dorset. A pair of parallel banks 1.5m tall running about 82m apart, with external ditches 1.5m deep by 2m wide. One bank is regular; the other meanders, suggesting that the former was laid out first and the latter was dug using the former as a reference. They have longbarrows built on them. Little remains above ground. Photo shows the Cursus banks superimposed in white. |
photo: Jim Champion
3300 wikDrC |
| c.3300 |  NESS of BRODGAR has earliest structures built on the main Island of Orkney. What remains includes decorated stone slabs, a stone wall 6m thick with foundations, and a large Neolithic temple. The site will be closed down and partly dismantled by 2200. |
plan: S Marshall photo: S Marshall 3300 wikTop, 33-3200 wikNoB |
| c.3200 |  CARROWKEEL Megalithic Cemetery, a cluster of 14 passage tombs, founded in south County Sligo, Ireland. 12 more are located within a 6km radius. Artifacts include animal bones, cremated human remains, human bones, tools, and Neolithic pottery. 2 tombs are shown here. |
photo: Jon Sullivan 35-2900 wikCMC |
| c.3200 | Circles of megalithic stones appear in Britain and Brittany. | 3200 PW 14 |
 Brodgar Road in Orkney Island |
map: Islandhopper |
| by 3100 |  STONES of STENNESS henge monument is built on the main Island of Orkney, maybe the oldest henge site in the British Isles. The stones are thin slabs, 30 cm thick with angled tops. Four, up to 5m high, are elements of a stone circle of up to 12 stones, in an ellipse, 32 m diameter on a level platform of 44m diameter surrounded by a ditch. |
photo: Wilson44691 by 3100 wikStSt |
| c,3100 |  UNSTON CAIRN, a Neolithic chambered cairn, is built and used on the main Island of Orkney. An atypical example of Orkney-Cromarty chambered cairns. The barrow, or burial mound, that covered the tomb is circular, 13m diameter, rather than the usual oblong or rectangular form. The barrow is round because the tomb contains a side chamber, more common in Maeshowe-type tombs. The main chamber does not open at the end of the passageway, like typical stalled tombs, but along one long side - again, more typical of Maeshowe tombs. The barrow is made of 2 or 3 concentric rows of stonework. |
photo: Bruce McAdam 34-2800 wikUCC |
| c. 3000 |  Settlement of SKARA BRAE built in Orkney Islands, 10 clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dams that support the walls; houses include stone hearths, beds, and cupboards. Houses average 40 square meters, with a large square room containing a stone hearth. Each house is entered thru a low doorway that had a stone slab door which could be shut by a bar that slid in bar-holes cut in the stone door jambs.
They contain stone-built pieces of furniture, including cupboards, dressers, seats, and storage boxes. All buildings except a workshop are buried to the tops of the walls by midden, a clay-like mixture of ashes, shells, bones, sand and other domestic detritus. Probably no more than 50 people live there at a time. They make grooved-ware pottery. Occupied until 2500. |
map: Nilfanion 3180 Copilot, wikSB 3100 hifiBHK, 3000 wikTop |
| c.3000 |  BARNHOUSE SETTLEMENT founded in Orkney Islands. Houses are similar to those of the early phase of Skara Brae, i.e. they have central hearths, beds built against walls, stone dressers, and internal drains. The same grooved-ware pottery is present. Barnhouse differs in that the houses are free-standing. Inhabited until 2600. |
photo: Sandy Gerrard 3000 Copilot, wikBS |
| 3000 | Λ IRELAND V, in Mesolithic Period from 6000, turns Neolithic until ?. | 3000 B76 3-283 |
| c.3000 | WINDMILL HILL Culture in south Britain from 3600 ends. | 3000 oxrWHC |
| c. 3000 |  The 1st Λ STONEHENGE V begun in Wiltshire (not with big stones). The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch have been dated c.3100BC. First a circular ditch is dug some 1,050 feet in circumference, 4 1/2 to 6 feet deep and 12 feet wide, to supply the chalk soil for a bank which was thus built up along the inner side of the ditch. This alone requires 28,000 man-hours work, using red-deer antlers for picks etc. for shovels. The bank is 320 feet diameter and at least 6 feet high (some say 20 feet), with a causeway entrance on the northeast. Only a few stones are used in Stage I, a couple at the causeway entrance and perhaps the 4 Station Stones. 53 post holes are in the causeway entrance. "Heel stone" suggests sun worship. Deposits containing human bone date from 3000 BC. |
Wiltshire: Nilfanion
plan: Adamsan 3000 bk, wikSth, wikTPB, 2950 hifiBHK by 2900 mxfld 2800 MCAW |
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plan: V G Childe entry: John F Burka interior: Wknight94 |
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drawing: Fantoman400 |
| c.3000 |  MAES HOWE, a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave in the Orkney Islands shows that builders devise a standard unit of length by taking detailed readings from the movement of the sun and stars. The mound encasing the tomb is 35m diameter and 7.3m high. Surrounding the mound, 15m to 21m away is a ditch up to 14m wide. The mound hides passages and chambers built of flagstone slabs weighing up to 30 tons. The rear wall of its central chamber is illuminated on the winter solstice, Building it took 39,000 man-hours. Builders make grooved ware pottery. |
map: Nilfanion photo: Tbc2 3000 hifiBHK, 2800 wikMH 2300 mxfld |
| c.3000 |  First of the AVEBURY monuments built in Wiltshire. |
Wiltshire: Nilfanion photo: MikPeach 3400-2625 wikAv |
| c. 3000 | GRIMES GRAVES, Neolithic flint mining site in East Anglia, begins operating until 1900. See 2000 | 3000-1900 wikGG |
| c.3000 |  LANYON QUOIT DOLMEN built northwest of Penzance on the end of Cornwall dates 35-2500. When covered with dirt, it's called a barrow; and a large barrow is a tumulus. |
photo: Olaf Tausch 35-2500 wikDlm |
| c.2900 | 180 separate habitation centers exist in Wessex. | 2900 mxfld |
| c.2700 | BOOKAN CHAMBERED CAIRN, a small, multi-chambered structure is built in Orkney on high ground between the Ring of Bookan and the Ring of Brodgar. | 29-2500 nob |
| c.2600 | BARNHOUSE SETTLEMENT in Orkney Islands from 3000 abandoned. Later, another structure is added, partially on top of the earlier building sites, known as Structure 8. | 2600 wikBS |
| c.2600 | PLUMBING: By this time, Skara Brae and the Barnhouse Settlement have a primitive sewer system, with "toilets" and drains in each house, with water used to flush waste into a drain and out to the ocean. | 3000 wikHWSS 2500 Copilot, wikSB |
| c.2600 | NORMANTON DOWN Barrows cemetery opens 1km south of Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The 1st monuments are a rectangular earthwork mortuary enclosure southwest of the group and 3 neolithic long barrows. It will accumulate nearly 40 round barrows: 25 bowl barrows, 5 bell barrows (one a double barrow), 7 disc barrows and single saucer barrow, all along the crest of a low east-west aligned ridge. Multiple graves are often covered by a single barrow. Burials continue until 1600. | 2600 wikNDB no date: stcr |
| c.2500 | Settlement of SKARA BRAE in Orkney Islands from 3000 abandoned. | 2500 Copilot, wikSB |
| c.2500 | BEAKER pottery appears in Λ Ireland until 1700. | 2500 wikBBC |
| c.2500 | CHALCOLITHIC AGE begins in Britain until 2200. | 2500 wikClc |
| c.2500 |  COPPER V mines begin on Ross "Island" (now a peninsula) in SW Ireland V until
1700. Ross becomes the sole source of copper in Ireland until 2200. Ross island is associated with beaker pottery until 1900. |
2500 wikBBC 2400 wikRIK |
| c.2500 | NEOLITHIC Period in Britain from 4000 ends. BRONZE AGE begins until 700. Early Bronze Age Britain begins until 1500, Mount Pleasant Phase and Early Beaker culture begins until 2000. Late Beaker culture continues 2100-1900. Knives, tanged spearheads. | 2500 wikBAB, wikNBI |
 |
photo: Russian name |
| c.2500 | DURRINGTON WALLS stone circle, 2 miles north of Amesbury, oriented southeast towards the sunrise on the midwinter solstice. A timber circle 720 feet in diameter now known as the Southern Circle1, is built by skilled carpenters, probably with a sloping, cone-shaped roof and a central courtyard open to the sky. Its 4 concentric circles of postholes would have held large standing timbers. A paved road is built on a different alignment - towards the sunset on the summer solstice. The whole thing is now barely visible. | 2600 wikDrW 2500 mxfld |
 Woodhenge with concrete stumps in the post holes |
photo: GothamNurse |
| c.2500 | WOODHENGE formed of 6 concentric ovals of standing posts. A surrounding bank and ditch will be added between 2470 and 2000. Pottery is consistent with grooved ware style of the middle Neolithic, with some later beaker sherds. The site is still in use around 1800. | 2500 wikWH |
| c.2500 | BELL BEAKER people begin migrating from Netherlands to Britain until 2300. They have copper working skills, arrow-heads, and daggers, introduce single inhumation graves. | 2700 wikBHK 2500 mxfld 2450 wikBBC, |
| c.2400 | Bronze HALBERD used in Λ Ireland until 2000. | 2400 wikB |
| c.2400 | Bell-Beaker culture is dominant in Britain. Hundreds of smaller stone circles are built in the British Isles. | 2400 wikMgl |
| c.2400 | TIN discovered in Cornwall. A bronze industry soon develops. | 25-2300 mxfld |
| c.2400 | SILBURY HILL near Avebury in Wiltshire, shows 1st evidence of construction - a gravel core with a revetting kerb of stakes and sarsen boulders. Alternate layers of chalk rubble and earth are placed on top of this. Constructed in several stages until 2300. | 2400 wikSH |
| c.2350 |  SILBURY HILL an artificial chalk and clay mound near Avebury in Wiltshire built. 167m diameter, 40m high, covers 5 acres, constructed in several stages c.2400-2300. Took 18,000,000 man-hours, i.e. 500 people working 15 years to deposit and shape 248,000 cm of fill. Tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe, Purpose unknown. |
photo: Immanuel Giel 24-2300 wikSH |
 |
photo: Nachosan |
| c.2300 | RING of BRODGAR Neolithic henge and almost perfect stone circle built on the main Island of ORKNEY V. The stone circle is 104m diameter, 3rd largest in the British Isles, originally up to 60 stones, of which 27 remain standing. Tallest stones are at the south and west of the ring, including the "Comet Stone" to the southeast. They are in a circular ditch up to 3m deep, 9m wide, and 380m in circumference carved out of solid sandstone bedrock. This ditch is not a true henge, as there is no sign of an encircling bank of earth and rock. . | 25-2000 wikNoB, 2300 mxfld |
| c.2300 | BELL BEAKER people, migrating to Britain from 2500, stop until 1900. They have replaced 90% of the population. Their culture lasts until 1800. | 2500 wikBHK 2300 mxfld, wikBBC, wikTPB |
| c.2300 |  STONEHENGE V: begun 3000, 3rd phase of construction begins. The first 5 ton bluestones from Wales are raised, though they may have been at the site as early as 3000. It is assumed that there were about 80 monoliths originally, but this has never been proven since only 43 remain. |
diagram pub dom 2300 u2TSE, wikBlS, 24-2200 wikSth |
| c.2200 | CHALCOLITHIC AGE in Britain from 2500 ends. | 2200 wikClc |
| c.2100 | BRITAIN, in Early Beaker culture 2300-1500, receives Late Beaker culture until 1900. Knives, tanged spearheads. | 2100 wikBAB |
| c. 2100 | Λ STONEHENGE-II starts with a double Bluestone Circle, with stones 6 feet apart in the center of the original construction. Part of this is never completed. 82 ophitic dolorite stones were brought from their only source, the Prescelly Mountains of Dyfed, Wales, - 135 miles straight-line or 240 miles by sea and land, each weighing several tons. 209,280 man-days are required to move them. An "Altar Stone" is added, the entrance is widened and a new axis alignment made or astronomical sightings. The Sarsen Circle has 30 uprights and lintels, weighing up to 45 tons. These stones came from near Avebury and almost necessarily had to be moved on ice when Britain was colder than before or since. Stonehenge-II may have been influenced by Beaker people. 900 other stone circles are found thruout the British Isles. Phase 3 & 4 continue until 1930. |
diagram pub dom 2900 hifiBHK 2100 mxfld |
| c.2100 | Λ COPPER V first mined in Britain. Mining at the largest mine, the Great Orme in Wales, continues into the late Bronze Age. Copper deposits of Cornwall are untouched, despite extensive tin mining there. | 2100 wikCpr |
 |
photo: Michael Walters PA Images |
| c.2049 | SEAHENGE (Holme I), a timber circle with an upturned tree stump in the center, built on a salt marsh near Old Hunstanton in Norfolk, along with nearby timber circle Holme II. Both are used for ritual purposes. Holme I is an outer ring of 55 small split oak trunks forming an oval 7m by 6m. Cut sides inwards; bark sides outwards. Trees used in it are all felled in 2049 BC. Holme II is a mortuary monument, maybe originally the boundary of a burial mound. | 2049 wikShg |
Europe 2000-1001
V