Before the Roman Invasion of Britain in 55 BC little
is known about Britain’s pre - history.
What little we do know however, is that there
certainly were people already living here before that time as we have
evidence of both Stone Age and Bronze Age buildings all over the British Isles
to this day, many of which remain curiosities to
historians and archaeologists.
The buildings I will describe below come from five
different categories, an ancient mound, a monolith or standing stone, a stone
circle, a chalk horse and a broch.
MOUSA BROCH
There are over five hundred Brochs, or round towers, situated
around Scotland and it’s Islands.
This prime example, shown above, which is situated on the
uninhabited Shetland island of Mousa, dates back to 100 BC.
It stands forty four feet high, has one entrance hole
and was was built with very thick walls. There is also evidence of it having
had at least two upper floors.
It's possible that the broch was once a two storey
family home which housed the family's livestock on the ground floor, but
historians are not entirely sure about this, all they are sure of is that Mousa
Broch is the best preserved, pre- historic building in all of Europe.
RUDSTONE MONOLITH
The Rudstone Monolith is a twenty five feet tall
megalith, or standing stone, which stands in the churchyard of Rudstone Church
in North Yorkshire.
The monolith is made of local stone and originally
stood around twenty eight feet high, weighed around forty tons and has as much
stone buried beneath it as it does above it.
During the 1800's excavation work was done around the
stone and several human skulls were found there, making historians believe that
the huge stone was erected for sacrificial purposes, but other than that no one
really knows why or by whom, this massive rock had been transported over twenty
miles to this site for.
UFFINGTON WHITE HORSE
There are quite a few white chalk horses found in the
English countryside, but only three have been verified as being from pre -
history.
The oldest of these is the White Horse at Uffington in
Oxfordshire.
The horse is three hundred and seventy four feet wide
and was formed by deep trenches cut into the hillside which were then infilled
with chalk.
Historians believe the drawing is about three thousand
years old and dates from the Bronze Age.
No one is quite sure of it’s origins, it’s
significance or who had it constructed.
CALLANISH STONE CIRCLE
Great Britain has an abundance of stone circles the
largest and most famous of which is Stonehenge.
This particular site is situated outside the village
of Callanish on the Scottish island of Lewes and was built between 2,900 and
2,600 BC.
The site consists of thirteen primary stones, all of
which are about five meters in height, which are surrounded by several other
smaller stones of about one meters in height.
There is evidence of an ancient Celtic Cross and
burial tombs at the site, which would suggest that it was once a sacrificial
burial site, but other than that, no one really knows the significance of these
massive stone structures or why they went on to be so well preserved.
SILBURY HILL
Silbury Hill is a one hundred and twenty foot high
chalk hill situated in the English county of Wiltshire, the same county as the
country’s other well known artifacts such as Stonehenge, Avebury and West
Kennet Long Barrow.
The hill covers an area of around five acres, has a
base perimeter of five hundred and forty eight
feet and a flat topped summit of around ninety eight feet in diameter.
Historians believe that it was built around 2,400
years ago and that those who began it’s
construction certainly didn’t live to see it's completion.
The hill is the tallest, pre - historic, man made
mound in Europe and no one knows why our ancestors were driven to build a hill
of such massive proportions.
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