THE CELTS

The Celts began to arrive in Britain around 700 B.C. they came from north-east Germany. We can hear the Celts' language when we go in Wales or in Scotland and we listen to someone who knows the local speech: Celts' language remains in "Welsh" and in "Gaelic". The Celts' works were farming, fishing, hunting and metal working. They didn't live in cities or in towns like us and they didn't have an house with a bed, a kitchen.. they were organized into tribes and they lived in huts. Their leaders were the strongest warriors of the tribes. One of those leaders was a woman: Boudicca. There were another important group in the tribes: the Druids. The Druids were the priests of the Celts but they weren't important not only in religion but also in justice, in medicine and in education. They didn't go to the church to held their cerimonies, they go in the heart of the forest..that's amazing! They hadn't Gods but they worshipped natural elements as the Sun, the Moon, trees.. They believed in immortality and they thought that after death, life was still on Earth. They also thought that the way to communicate with Gods was through  sacrifices: they sacrificed animals and, when they really need, humans. Most animal sacrifice was of domestic animals. Poor animals!

THE ROMANS

The Romans didn't conquered Britain immediately. The Romans invaded Britain in 55 B.C and they conquered it in the years 43-47 A.D under Emperor Claudius. The north and the east remained under military occupation but the south-east became romanised. The Romans, as you can understand, came from Rome. They spoke Latin. They brought their language and their culture with them. They built roads, towns, aqueducts and bridges. There were three different type of towns:

•  The COLONIAE where the Romans settlers lived;
• The MUNICIPIA where the inhabitants took Roman citizenship;
• The CASTRA which were the army camps.

The Romans brought also a powerful army, so people could go out without weapons and when the Romans left Britain people had to learn how to use them. When the Romans left Britain, it declined.

THE ANGLO-SAXONS

The Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain between the 5^th and the 6^th century. They were a Germanic tribe. They were divided into villages and they were ruled by a chief or a king who was a military leader. After the chief or the king came the "earls" who were nobles; the other was "freemen". The family was the centre of the social structure. The Anglo-Saxons brought their Nordic religion, their military structure and a code of values. They lived in country villages where all were communally. In the 8^th century Anglo-Saxons people began to form larger communities  that formed the boroughs, cities. First those boroughs were military bases but after became centres of trade. As I explained before the Anglo-saxons imposed their language which became Old-English and after English. They imposed their religion but after they had been converted by Christians.