The ages timeline
The ages of prehistory in Britain, and how they fit school history. Every fact links to its source, checked 29 Oct 2026. Dates are as each source gives them, and experts revise them as new finds are made.
The ages in Britain
| When | What the sources say |
|---|---|
| About 3.3 million years ago | It began about 3.3 million years ago, the age of the oldest known stone tools. [source] |
| Nearly a million years ago | People first reached Britain nearly a million years ago. [source] |
| About 12,000 years ago | People have lived in Britain continuously only since about 12,000 years ago. [source] |
| About 4000–2300 BC | English Heritage dates the Neolithic in Britain to about 4000–2300 BC. [source] |
| About 2300–800 BC | In Britain the first metal objects appeared about 2400 BC; English Heritage dates the Bronze Age to about 2300–800 BC. [source] |
| About 800 BC–AD 43 | English Heritage dates the Iron Age in Britain to about 800 BC–AD 43. [source] |
Different sources draw the lines between ages slightly differently. The Stone Age began long before people reached Britain.
Stone Age
- The Stone Age is the long stretch of prehistory when people made and used stone tools. [source]
- It is split into three periods: the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and the Neolithic (New Stone Age). [source]
- The first human fossils found in Britain are a leg bone and two teeth from Boxgrove in West Sussex, about 500,000 years old. [source]
- Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of our species found in Britain. He lived about 10,000 years ago. [source]
- Farming was brought to Britain by migrants from the Continent about 4100 BC, along with pottery. [source]
- Skara Brae in Orkney is a Neolithic village so well preserved that even the stone furniture survives. [source]
- Stonehenge was built in stages: the first monument, a henge, about 5,000 years ago, and the stone circle about 2500 BC, in the late Neolithic. [source]
Bronze and Iron
- Bronze is made by combining copper with tin (or arsenic), and it replaced stone for tools and weapons. [source]
- The stones went up at a time of change, as Beaker pottery and metalworking arrived from the Continent. [source]
- Four sarsens carry hundreds of carvings of axe-heads, probably bronze axes from about 1750–1500 BC. [source]
Around the world
- The earliest Neolithic began in the Middle East about 10,000 BC. [source]
- Farming communities appeared in Greece as early as 7000 BC. [source]
- Maize (corn) was first domesticated about 8000 BC in what is now southern Mexico, from a wild grass called teosinte. [source]
- Ötzi the Iceman is a glacier mummy from the Copper Age, found by hikers in the Alps in 1991. [source]
- He lived over 5,300 years ago, so he is older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. [source]
School history in England
- In England’s national curriculum, Key Stage 2 pupils are taught about “changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age”. [source]
- Its non-statutory examples include late Neolithic hunter-gatherers and early farmers, such as Skara Brae, and Bronze Age religion, technology and travel, such as Stonehenge. [source]
- Key Stage 2 also covers the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain, Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots, and the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England. [source]
- Key Stage 2 pupils also study the achievements of the earliest civilizations, and Ancient Greece. [source]
- Non-statutory Key Stage 2 examples include the changing power of monarchs, through case studies such as John, Anne and Victoria, and turning points such as the first railways. [source]
- Key Stage 3 history runs from Medieval Britain 1066–1509, through Britain 1509–1745 and Britain 1745–1901, to 1901 to the present day. [source]
- At Key Stage 3, one suggested depth study is a significant turning point, for example the Neolithic Revolution. [source]
Curriculum details are from the Department for Education’s history programmes of study, checked 29 Oct 2026. They can change, so check the current version. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own curricula.
Books and kit
For the classroom, a project or a day out: Stone Age to Iron Age books · History timeline posters · KS3 history guides · Prehistoric Britain books · Archaeology dig kits · Stonehenge guidebooks. These are Amazon UK search links, not endorsements of particular products. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.