The Peopling of Britain : The Shaping of a Human Landscape

This is an account of the evolution of human settlement in Britain over the last half-million years and its impact on the landscape from the beginnings to the present day. It reviews the way in which the evolving human presence in Britain has shaped the British landscape and how, in turn, the British landscape has moulded British communities.

This volume reviews the way in which, over the centuries, the evolving human presence in Britain has shaped the British landscape and how, in turn, the British landscape has moulded the development of British communities. From the beginnings of human settlement Britain has represented a final frontier for successive waves of colonists, each bringing its own set of cultural adaptations and its own ethos into the landscape. Over time both landscape and culture have matured from raw frontier to settled centre, moulded by the advent of agriculture, towns, and industry, and by streams of migration both within Britain and from outside. The chapters in this book - by archaeologists, historians, and geographers - present an interdisciplinary and accessible account of that long process. Together they trace the various phases of the story, showing how much of it has only recently been unearthed, and how much remains to be discovered.