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Thousands of years ago
Scotland was covered by thick forests, The weather then was very hot and
many wild animals roamed the land like the great mammoth lions and wolves,
Bones of various animals have been dug up and found in fossils all over
Scotland The first scot probably lived like the animals, he would hunt for
their food and I dont think they were as tall and big as they are
today,because they lived on berrys and fruits and shellfish and probably
small animals they could catch, I would imajine with the weather being hot
they wouldnt have worn much clothes, and according to history books most
lived near rivers, and they would probably hide and hunt when animals came
to drink at the river,I think although man was smaller than todays man,
chances are he was more clever than the animals, he could always pick up a
stone or bit wood and throw it at the animals, and by what people have
found he made scrapers to dig and cut,I read that when Scotland began to
get colder the bigger animals such as mammoths ,and lions, etc would move
away to hotter areas,and as europe and Scotland were all one land would
have made it easy for the animals, If early man felt the herat he must
have felt the cold also, so he would have wrapped the animals skins around
himself, and like the animals looked for caves etc to shelter in from the
cold, we all know that early man lived in caves, and I would still say
that the cave would be as close to water as could be we always need water
to drink and where there is water there is always animals and shellfish,
Because early man didn't know anything about daggers and axes and knew
nothing about metals, he learned to chip away at stones to make such items
what history says is that they made axes etc from sharpened stones and no
doubt used to cut wood, I would think even the female species of early man
would have done same as they do today with exceptions scraping the inside
of skins that could be used to make rugs and clothes, because early man
hadnt heard of metals I suppose this would be the Stone age period, If i
remember correctly it was the stoneage man that discovered how to make
fire by rubbing 2 bits of wood together, another way would have been to
cause sparks by striking two stones together this i believe would have
been the women that discovered this as they did everything to do with
cooking of meals of course there is no actual proof whether it was the man
or woman, no doubt children would have helped by collecting wood and
helping the mother and no doubt the boys helped the fathers, and learnt to
hunt, a fire would have been handy to keep caves warm and also to keep
wild animals away, who knows maybe even the cooking of meat may have been
a wild animal falling in the fire and the smell encourage the tasting of
it which Im sure would have been tasty meal roast boar even to the man in
the cave, as it would be to you and me today, mmmmm can almost tasts the
crackle, By what has been found by archaeologists the man from stone age
were definetely hunters and ate meat with the amount of bones found in
fossilized forms,they wouldnt know how to keep animals nor would they know
anything about growing food, I have seen in previous documentarys that the
man of that age used to follow the animals all over the country so I
suppose they came upon other tribes that had new things and they all
passed on all the knew, It must have been hard life killing animals with
whjat weapons they had, its hard enough these days in those days I am sure
they were very good with their bows and arrows, after all if you dont hunt
and kill something you will starve, and man would find that like all
natives that animals can provide everything man needs to survive, from the
bones the meat and the skins, chances are they used splinters from bones
to make fish hooks,if one ventures along the beaches in north of scotland
there is always masses of shells from when people concentrated there
eating on shellfish, Early man even invented his canoe from a tree and
eventually hollowed it out and the first boat appeared, in many places in
Scotland we see many wall paintings but best i know of are seen not in
Scotland but in Africa, but I am quite sure there is cave paintings
somewhere in my country just Im not at present sure exactly ,but like all
hunters and fishermen they like everyone to know of what there kills
were,and what better way than paint it on walls etc, and cahnces are it
helped with the magic they may have believed to gain the power from the
animals, I have read many books on history and they reckon the dog was
first animal to be tamed,used as guard and also to help in hunting, the
next tamed animals would have been sheep cows and boars of a variety,
As time went by man would
probably have got more clever at making weapons etc from bones and
hornsand also I reckon they would have been making pottery by then, man
had came on very well in hundreds of years had gone, some flints that have
been found are still as sharp as a razor and would have gave the tools and
weapons a good sharp edge, as the years went by religion emerged from the
country people who were more or less as we know today as Pagans,,, people
were mainly in family groups and so they would have build large abodes to
share with all in tribe, as we see all around these are like hill forts,
In stone age days, families worshipped the sun and the moon, they also
believed that spirits lived in streams and trees and in the grass and
lonely places all had magic near them, and eventually they would have
built Stonehenge in England, and that is very large and tall and people
from all over would have went there to worship even for good grops and
plenty food or even to have old scores settled...
By then I reckon people
started to arrive from the eastern parts of the world bringing with them
what we called the green metal, and they called Bronze this was a mixture
of tin and copper heated both together Bronze tools were better than stone
and lasted longer and when bronze swords were blunted etc, would just need
to heat and hammer shape again where as stone would have to be renewed,
many things could be made from Bronze, jewellery to adorn there bodies,
weapons vessels to cook in spears to use for fishing must have been a
great find to see such a thing after been using stone for years, The
people from the Bronze age I believe were still farmers and used their
weapons only to hunt with, it was about the time of the Bronze age someone
invented the wheel, how man had came on from being as low as the animal
and now had fire and metals and wheel the greatest invention of all made
life easier transported goods from one area to another increased the
trading,
After many many more years
the Celts arrived in this land,,, the tribes in Scotland before were Picts,
they brought another metal with them they brought Iron Iron was better it
made weapons harder, maybe not as beautiful and bright but lasted longer,
Of course the human then
also had started making cloth first the wool from the sheep and goats had
to be twisted into long threads this was spinning and had been done before
by other tribes, a stick was placed in one hand, called the spindle, and
the round weight at end of that was called the whorlon here shoulder would
be a roll of wool and this would be picked between her fingers until she
had a bit long enough to tie on the spindle stick which would spin round
and round, and twist the wool into a thread, the threads were then weaved
into cloths this was called weaving the clothe would be used to barter and
also to make clothes, a finer cloth was called linen that was made from
flax thats a plant that grew wild it had pretty blue flowers and a woody
stem. when the stems were soaked in water and dried in the sun the women
could pick out the silky parts and spin it into threads, They would dye
the cloth with plants and bark from tree's they all like blues and reds
and greens, I think people would have just wrapped cloth round themselves
and eventually used the metal to make buckles to hold shirts or dresses
closer to the body, and they would have worn shoes made also from animals
skins, and decorated again from Bronze and when poplished would have
looked like gold, although gold was being found at that time also and
metal workers loved to add enamels of red and patterns of coral on there
adornments, they would have used all metals for cooking utensils as well
as ornaments and as jewellery,
I will bypass the next
period of man that was times of the druids and the Romans as for that part
of history that alone lasted many hundreds of years and would take many
pages to tell you all about Roman Britain so we will move onto the times
of the Norsemen, The Angles,Saxons and the Jutes were warriors who
actually lived in Germany, but for many many years had been raiding the
shores of Scotland and England even the Romans had built forts to keep
them away, The long ships you think of when you think of Norsemen and what
some called Vikings, actually the word Viking was something the Saxons did
when they attacked anywhere, Now the Anglo Saxons were a rare breed of man
they all stood tall, fair or blonde haired, even hair on face, and all
were warriors, they were armed with large one handed axes spears and and
one handed swords They wore armour made from metal rings sewed into
leather chest waistcoats and jackets of sorts, and they carried large
round shields, These sea raiders loved fighting and were well know for
their ferocity, The Saxons who got there names from Seax the name for
their favourite sword, were the cruelliest of all fighters, Their Gods
were known as Thor and Odin and were just as pitiless as there
followers,,,
But thats another story and
will be told another day. |
