The Entire History of Neolithic Britain and Ireland (4000 - 2500 BC) | Ancient History Documentary

The entire history of Neolithic Britain and Ireland from the migration and rise of the first farmers to the fall of their civilisation.

Who were the first farmers of the British Isles? Where did they come from and why did they migrate to these islands?

And why did they build all those incredible megalithic monuments that we see in the landscape today?

This documentary covers the history of the Neolithic in Britain from around 4000 BC to the arrival of the Bell Beaker people in about 2500 BC.

We will look at the first farmers of Europe and their migrations across the continent, as well as their interactions with the Mesolithic Western Hunter Gatherers who were already there.

And we will dispel some of the biggest popular misconceptions about these amazing people.

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[DanDavisHistory]

If you enjoy the video please hit "like" and share it with a friend, that would help me out enormously. Cheers!

[Survivethejive]

I find the Neolithic dark age so interesting. It shows how easily and regularly civilisations fall! Learned a lot from this one thanks Dan

[reporebo]

hedgehog with mushrooms on its spines at 4:40 was the surprise hit

[Non-Serviam]

I love how you talk TO your audience, not AT them👍🏻

[annakobuk]

This channel is one of the best things that happened to the internet

[petedandrea]

Ex of St. Albans, Herts here, now living in CO, USA. I grew up playing on new housing developments near my mums house. Every so often work on the building site would stop due to a piece of Roman pottery being dug up. My and my mates would hang out at the archaeological dig hoping for treasure to be discovered, lol. I never gave up my fascination with British history and channels like yours are a God send. Thanks for doing what you do, much appreciated!

[Missangie]

people have never stopped trying to get away from their relatives have they?

[andersschmich]

Absolutely fantastic! I am getting my Master's Degree in History in Ireland starting this fall, and my tentative research thesis concerns cultural continuity and Medieval use of Neolithic sites.

[juneroberts]

Every now and again I go through your whole channel. The amount of information you cram into an episode never ceases to boggle my tiny mind, and you are so engaging that listening to your uploads never gets old.

[WWeronko]

With the arrival in Neolithic Britain of the Bell Beaker peoples came the renewed growing of barley in a massive way. Barley at the time was strongly associated with beer brewing. The spread of the Beaker culture in Britain introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry, resulting in a near-complete transformation of the local gene pool within a few centuries, to the point of replacement of about 90% of the local Neolithic-derived lineages. It clearly demonstrates the power of beer.

[finishhim]

Why do I always stumble across great docs when I'm supposed to sleep.

[jamienelson]

Apropos of nothing, the hedgehog with the mushrooms stuck all over was the very best.

[ruththinkingoutside.]

This channel makes presentations that are so incredible they defy expectations in every way..
it reaches a place that’s oddly both emotional and intellectual..
it’s just SO GOOD..
..you are compelled to rewatch all of them..

[basilbrushbooshieboosh]

Love the video Dan. And two things especially: That you intersperse the video with maps that have dates for migrations, and also that you own your earlier misconceptions.
On the first point, it gives viewers a chrono-spatial context to work by. Especially if they have picto-graphic learning leanings such as myself.
On the second point you become inclusive of your viewers possible fallibilities.
Thanks for the large section on the ritual sites of the Orkney's, as that is one of my ancestral origin areas through my mum's mum. I can never hear enough about that site.

[TheWitchInTheWoods]

Really interesting. I think the Bronze age history of Britain is a fascinating story of waves of invasion. But I can't help but wonder what happened before all this.. I'm talking of the history of Doggerland and the deep dark ice ages. As I live near Creswell crags, I know where I live these stories go back into even deeper histories, of people arriving between one ice age and the next. If you could do a video about these people that would be amazing. Although I know we know very little about them. But very interesting, thank you.

[masterdrewanthony]

This is spectacularly narrated. Even if the subject matter weren't factual, and were entirely fictional, it would have been a pleasure to watch all the same. Bravo!

[peterfrance]

That was great Dan. Thank you. I've been missing a coherent narrative that weaves together all the different threads of the successive migration waves and their ways of life - and here it is presented in digestible form.

[therationalcollection]

It's funny. Ive been to 42 countries and caught many planes.. but yet I'm still jealous to understand the feeling of discovery these people must have felt ferrying over their livestock from Europe

[paulbennett]

Stonehenge - not midsummer sunrise, but midwinter sunset. Brilliant series of videos! I'd like to read a story describing the travails of Doggerland people, as they cope with the aftermath of the Storegga catastrophe, and a video of the research that went into it. Any chance, Dan?

[Maddog]

It's really amazing looking back on these far periods of history. Our recent history as a civilization has massive, world changing events happening on a decade-by-decade basis, or even sooner. Even in the early modern period you had countries rising and falling in power in as little as a century; see Sweden as an example. But these periods of history that one may consider a mythic age lasted for as long, or longer than the time between us and the birth of Christ. What stories have we lost? What history was forgotten? Were there kingdoms? Wars? Heroes and villains? What stories did they tell each other. What explorers dared venture forth and bring back tales of far off lands? Sadly we have lost this information, and probably will never know. Something to mourn, I think.