NEW STONE AGE (Neolithic) c.3,500 – 2,000 BC
During the fourth millennium BC a further wave of European settlers came to Britain. Unlike their predecessors they were farmers, living in settled communities, growing crops and rearing domesticated animals.
They still tended to settle on the lighter, less wooded soils in river valleys, though settlement sites on the heavier clays at Stacey Bushes, Heelands and in the city centre suggest the beginnings of a movement away from the valleys, and larger scale forest clearance.
Microscopic traces of pollen and seeds preserved in the soil at Stacey Bushes suggest that this farmstead was located in a woodland clearing, and was engaged mainly in grazing livestock. Domesticated animals farmed in this period included cattle, sheep and pigs, all smaller forms than today. Dogs were also kept.
Tools used in the New Stone Age were still made of stone, but were more sophisticated than in earlier periods. Perhaps the most important new tool of this period was the polished stone axe. Many of these were made in Cornwall, north Wales and the Lake District, and were widely traded
