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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Stone Age
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General term for the entire span of human culture from the earliest beginnings (now estimated to be about 2.5 million years in the past) to a few thousand years ago. The Stone Age is divided into old, middle and new periods – palaeolithic, mesolithic, neolithic (lithos being the Greek for stone). The palaeolithic period came to an end in Britain about 10,000 years ago, when the ice cap receded at the end of the *ice age. The transition to mesolithic and then neolithic was inevitably gradual; archaeological remains are classified as one or the other according to the flint tools being used (progressing from chipped to polished), and by the sophistication of weapons and of hunting methods.
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Agriculture, animal husbandry and pottery begin in the neolithic period, roughly from about 4000 BC in Britain. The use of metal provides the first clear-cut distinction, with the transition to the *Bronze Age in about 2000 BC. In *Skara Brae Scotland has an outstanding relic of Stone Age life, and it was in the Stone Age that *Avebury and *Stonehenge first acquired their ritual significance.
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