Prehistoric settlement of the British Isles

The British Isles have experienced a long history of migration from Europe. The ancient migrations have come via two routes: along the Atlantic coast and from Germany–Scandinavia. The first settlements came in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. The earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated to 10,500 BC.

Research into this prehistoric settlement is controversial, with differences of opinion in many academic disciplines. There have been disputes over the sizes of the migrations and whether they were peaceful. In the latter part of the second millennium, the finds of archaeology allowed a view of the settlement pattern to be inferred from changes in artefacts. Since the 1990s the use of DNA has allowed this view to be refined.

In May 2013, fossilized human footprints were found in newly uncovered sediment on a beach in Happisburgh, Norfolk. These Happisburgh footprints were dated to at least 800,000 years ago, the early . Thirty-two worked flints found in April 2003 at Pakefield on the Suffolk coast are evidence of the settlement of hominini in Britain from about 700,000 BC. A shinbone belonging to "Boxgrove Man", a member of the species Homo heidelbergensis found at Boxgrove Quarry, West Sussex, is the oldest human bone found in Britain, and has been dated at c. 480,000 BC. Evidence of Homo neanderthalensis occupation has been found at La Cotte de St Brelade in the island of Jersey dated to c. 250,000 BC. Neanderthals are thought to have appeared in the rest of Britain around 130,000 BC and became the dominant species until their disappearance from the archaeological record c. 40,000 years ago. A skull found in Swanscombe in Kent and teeth found at Pontnewydd Cave in Denbighshire are examples of remains found with distinct Neanderthal features.

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