I.

Introduction

Ancient Britain, term used to denote the islands of Great Britain from the time of the earliest human presence, about 700,000 years ago, to the arrival of the Angles and Saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries. During that time enormous changes took place. The name Britain comes from the Latin name Britannia, which the ancient Romans applied to the island, and the name Britain is still widely used to mean Great Britain.