Historical Context

Question 1

When does the human race/ homosapians date back to

Answer 1

100000to 200000 years

Question 2

Why are homosapiams unique

Answer 2

• distinct species

- spread throughout the world

Question 3

What is the current period and when did it begin

Answer 3

Quaternary, 2.6 million years ago, we currently live in an ice age

Question 4

What 2 epochs is the quaternary divided into

Answer 4

Pleistocene, started at the beginning of a new ice age, w.y milllion yrs ago

Holocene, 11.7 thousand years ago, civilisations arose

Question 5

Describe an ice age

Answer 5

Repeated episodes of cold, resulting in glacial advance, and warm, resulting in retreat of glaciers (interglacial).

The last cold period was in 26500 reached -18oC. —> poles, reduction in sea level of 125m

There was no North Sea, dogger hills was connected and mammoths roamed

Glaciers advanced across Britain, reaching max south of BHam.

Question 6

What drives glacial and interglacial periods?

Answer 6

Milankovitch cycles: they describe the cyclic fluctuations in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, altering the amount of radiation it receives and the surface temp of earth.

Question 7

Describe the milankovitch cycles

Answer 7

• 1st: 413000 yr period, orbit of earth around sun changes shape from circular to elliptical
• 2nd period: 41000 yrs, axial tilt of earth varies
• 3rd: 27500 yrs, precession of axial tilt occurs

Question 8

When has human history taken place

Answer 8

During the last 18000 room the last glacial maximum

Question 9

Describe the 3 melting events

Answer 9

1. Oldest Dryas. c.17,000 BP.
2. Older Dryas; c.14,000 BP.
3. Younger Dryas; c.12000 BP.

Question 10

What period were the first widely made stone tools used in

Answer 10

Palaeolithic

Question 11

When was a more sophisticated stone tool kit made

Answer 11

Mesolithic (middle Stone Age c. 6000 BC)

Question 12

What period was associated with the invention of agriculture

Answer 12

Neolithic period c. 3500 BC

Question 13

What happened as the climate became warmer

Answer 13

Glaciers retreated and sea-level rose leading to the invasion of the land between the east of Britain and the Netherlands, in what would become the North Sea. Happened in 3 distinct melting events (latest: Flandrian Transgression)

Question 14

When did the final separation of Britain from the continent occur ?

Answer 14

Around 5600 BC when a huge landslide in Norway set off a tsunami across the sea, flooding the land bridge that remained

Question 15

Mesolithic period developed into theNeolithic

Answer 15

The materials most widely used for tools were stone, bone, and wood. Tools were derived from “found objects” or hunted animals.

Question 16

What happened in the Neolithic period

Answer 16

The hunter gatherer lifestyle became the sedentary lifestyle appropriate for agriculture, as time passed more processing was used to widen the set of tools available for exploiting the environment extending to ceramics and metals.

Question 17

Transition period from neolithic to the Chalcolithic

Answer 17

Involves a tool-set of stone and copper, processing of metal ores to achieve an alloy of copper and tin = bronze

Question 18

when did the Bronze Age begin in Britain

Answer 18

app. 2000 BC

Question 19

when did the Iron Age begin

Answer 19

c. 700 BC - now, this began when we began extracting iron from its ores. Steel I sone of the most widely used materials today.

Question 20

When and why did Britain come to literary notice

Answer 20

app. 300 BC, when greek navigator sailed from Marseilles out of straits of Hercules to discover Britain

Question 21

When did Julius Caesar invade Southern Britain

Answer 21

55 and 54 BC. Unsuccessfully

Question 22

When did the romans invade britain

Answer 22

43 AD, conquest not complete until app. 90 AD

Question 23

when did the romans occupy Britain until and why did they withdraw

Answer 23

410 AD (with periodic attacks from the Irish and the Picts, and revolts by the British). Barbarian attacks on the Roman Empire from the east required most or all of the Roman legions to be withdrawn

Question 24

When did the Anglo-Saxans occupy Britain

Answer 24

Attack commenced around 450 lasted until 650

Question 25

What 2 conquests followed the Anglo-Saxons

Answer 25

1. Viking conquest app. 800 AD

2. Norman Conquest 1066 onwards

Question 26

What is the period after 1066 known as?

Answer 26

Medieval period - culminating in a series of civil wars, 1435 to 1485, (resulted in Battle of Bosworth).

Question 27

What is the period after 1500 AD known as?

Answer 27

Post-Medieval, runs till present. Within this period the industrial revolution began ~ 1760 –> greater use of mechanisation in all fields of life