~3000 - ~900 BC
Neolithic settlers; bring on the Bronze . . .
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Neolithic (or 'new' Stone Age) . . . stone tools now highly sophisticated (polished) & versatile . . . polished flint daggers / knives . . . the 'Beaker' people (~2500BC) . . . migrants (ex. Mediterranean) settle & displace (or absorb) Mesolithic predecessors . . . Beaker folk were farmers planting wheat, with grazing flocks of cattle, sheep, pigs . . . also skilled archers . . . first large-scale forest clearances . . . movement to higher ground (in response to warmer, drier weather) . . . metal-working, copper, gold & bronze (combining copper & tin) . . . copper & bronze axes, daggers, spears, swords . . . tin traded / exchanged with Mediterranean sources . . . fine pottery & weaving . . . barrow building & stone circles (Stonehenge II & III) . . . ditched camps with causeways . . . stone houses . . . first oil-lamps . . . flint mines . . . personal ornaments of fine working . . . development of travel & cultural & trading contacts by land & sea (in response to benign conditions) . . . first tentative incursion of Celtic peoples perhaps? . . .
Renewed trend to drier conditions (after downturn 3500 - 3000 BC) * increasing warmth (perhaps sudden) * spread of grasslands * lowering lake levels, but with sharp oscillations * some evidence of 'wetter' sub-periods in this generally benign era * increase in Beech / Hornbeam / Spruce - implies 'better' climate * probably more sunshine (compared with immediately before & since) in the period 2000 - 1500 BC * this implies high pressure centres displaced (relative to modern-day) further north & generally more intense. ~ 1500 BC: marked down-turn / reversal * increase in precipitation - more especially latter part of this period - but perhaps 'regionalised' to the "north and west" of these islands * woodland in retreat from NW coastal areas * perhaps increased storminess / temperature extremes.				Weather Log
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