Britain & Ireland

In this section you can be transported to a world when Britain was part of mainland Europe or to prehistory Bristol or travel from 3000BC to 60BC across Britain and Ireland. The content explores the society and culture of the people that populated the British Isles in the early days, what the evidence is for knowing about them and what marks they have left for us to see today. Read more

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  • 'Veni, Vidi, Vici!'

    Article

    A personal reflection on Julius Caesar and the conquest of Britain Julius Caesar always brings to mind the famous dictum of Winston Churchill, ‘History will be kind to me, for I shall write it!' In his writings Julius Caesar provides a vivid and detailed account of his invasions of Britain in...

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  • Film: The Making of Early England 500-1066

    Article

    In this Virtual Branch lecture Michael Wood returns to his popular territory of Early England 500-1066 using the lives of specific stories and individuals to cast light on the period. This lecture was recorded on the 9 July 2020 as part of the HA Virtual Branch and is available to all...

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  • Podcast Series: Ancient British and Irish Pagan Religion

    Multipage Article

    In this podcast Professor Ronald Hutton of the University of Bristol looks at Ancient British and Irish Pagan Religion.

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  • Podcast Series: From the Stone Age to the Romans

    Multipage Article

    In this podcast Professor Richard Bradley of the University of Reading looks at Britain and Ireland from their prehistoric beginnings to the arrival of the Romans.

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  • Podcast: Roman Britain

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcasted History of Roman Britain featuring Guy de la Bédoyère.

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  • Prehistoric Bristol

    Article

    This period is represented in the valley of the Bristol Avon by the Acheulian industries, named from the type station of St. Acheul in the Somme valley, which has yielded many ovate and pear-shaped hand-axes characteristic of the period. These industries flourished during the very long Second Interglacial phase, a...

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  • Prehistoric Scotland

    Article

    Prehistory is an attempt to reconstruct the story of human societies inhabiting a given region before the full historical record opens there. Its data, furnished by archaeology, are the constructions members of such societies erected and the durable objects they made. The events which should form its subject matter naturally...

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  • Roman Britain

    Article

    This classic pamphlet provides an introduction to Roman Britain, examines the political history, the institutions of Roman Britain, the economic background and the end of Roman Britain. IntroductionThe Roman conquest and occupation of Britain has long been taken as the conventional starting point of English History, and there is a conventional...

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  • The Undergrowth of History

    Article

    We can do all kinds of things with the past - examine it analytically, or question whether it ever existed, or churn it up inside ourselves until it turns into personal experience. We can dream it as we lounge amidst a heap of ruins, or petrify it into a museum;...

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