5. Neolithic

Modern archaeology now considers that farming along with pottery and settled living was in fact adopted by the native population who were related to the similarly newly-farming Neolithic people across the water. Knowledge of farming and ceramics probably passed between kinfolk through intermarriage, trade and other cultural ties. Links with continental Europe are demonstrated by finds of axes made from exotic stone such as jadeite.

In any case, the Neolithic Revolution, as it is called, introduced a more settled way of life and ultimately led to societies becoming divided into differing groups of farmers, artisans and leaders. Forest clearances were undertaken to provide room for cereal cultivation and animal herds. Native cattle and pigs were reared whilst sheep and goats were later introduced from the continent as were the wheats and barleys grown in Britain.

The construction of the earliest earthwork sites in Britain began during the early Neolithic (c. 4400 BC- 3300 BC) in the form of long barrows used for communal burial and the first causewayed enclosures, sites which have parallels on the continent. Causewayed enclosures are often located on hilltop sites, encircled by one to four segmented concentric ditches, with an internal bank that is also segmented. In general, enclosures located in lowland areas are larger than hilltop ones. Crossing the ditches at intervals are causeways which give the monuments their names. Archaeological evidence implies that the enclosures were visited occasionally by Neolithic groups rather than being permanently occupied. Animal remains (especially cattle bone), domestic waste and pottery have been found at the sites. There has been only limited evidence, however, of any structures. In some locations—Windmill Hill, for example—evidence of human occupation predates the creation of the enclosure.

The stone-built houses on Orkney such as those at Skara Brae are however indicators of some nucleated settlement in Britain. Evidence of growing mastery over the environment is embodied in the Sweet Track, a wooden trackway built to cross the marshes of the Somerset Levels and dated to 3807 BC. It is the oldest known engineered roadway in the world.

Leaf-shaped arrowheads, stone querns, round-based pottery types and the beginnings of polished axe production are common indicators of the period.

The Middle Neolithic (c. 3300 BC-c. 2900 BC) saw the development of cursus monuments close to earlier barrows and the growth and abandonment of causewayed enclosures as well as the building of impressive chamber tombs such as the Maeshowe type. The earliest stone circles and individual burials also appeared.

Different pottery types such as Grooved ware appear during the later Neolithic (c. 2900 BC-c. 2200 BC). The diagnostic shape for the style is a flat bottomed pot with straight sides sloping outwards and grooved decoration around the top. Beyond this the pottery comes in many different varieties, some with complex geometric decorations others with applique bands added. Some of the vessels may have been used to hold black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) which is a poison but also a powerful hallucinogen.

New enclosures, called henges were built. A henge is a near circular or oval-shaped flat area over 20m in diameter which is enclosed and delimited by a boundary earthwork that usually comprises a ditch with an external bank. Access to the interior is obtained by way of one, two, or four entrances through the earthwork. They were built along with stone rows and the famous sites of Stonehenge and Silbury Hill reached their peak. While Stonehenge is well-known, Silbury Hill is equally prominent, being the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the world's largest.

This period also saw the beginning of industrial flint mining such as that at Cissbury and Grimes Graves.