Background: Harsh and brutal world of early man

Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) Britain is the period from almost 750,000 years ago until about 10,000 years ago.

This huge length of time included several glacial and interglacial periods that affected human settlement.

In Britain, the earliest evidence of human activity dates from about 700,000 years ago, although there are long periods of 100,000 years or more, when there appears to have been no human presence.

At this time, southern and eastern Britain were linked to continental Europe by a wide land bridge allowing humans to move freely. The inhabitants of the region at the time were bands of hunter-gatherers who roamed northern Europe following herds of animals, or who supported themselves by fishing.

About 500,000 years ago during the lower palaeolithic, the early peoples made flint tools such as hand axes and hunted the large native mammals of the period. At the time, Britain was not an island but was connected to Europe.

Orkney was not a group of islands but connected to the mainland.

This era ended about 120,000 years ago.

Middle Palaeolithic - the time period of Neanderthal man - ended about 35,000 years BC.

Upper Palaeolithic - the time period during which only modern Homo sapiens were known to have existed; ended about 10,000 years BC.