<Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Britain for almost a million years . The Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD is conventionally regarded as the end of Prehistoric Britain and the start of recorded history in the island, although some historical information is available from before then . </P> <P> The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints probably made by Homo antecessor . The oldest human fossils, around 500,000 years old, are of Homo heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex . Until this time Britain was permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between south - east England and north - east France called the Weald - Artois Anticline, but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge, creating the English Channel, and after that Britain became an island when sea levels rose during interglacials . Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent, and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in North Wales . Britain was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago, when Neanderthals returned . By 40,000 years ago they had become extinct and modern humans had reached Britain . But even their occupations were brief and intermittent due to a climate which swung between low temperatures with a tundra habitat and severe ice ages which made Britain uninhabitable for long periods . The last of these, the Younger Dryas, ended around 11,700 years ago, and since then Britain has been continuously occupied . </P> <P> Britain and Ireland were then joined to the Continent, but rising sea levels cut the land bridge between Britain and Ireland by around 11,000 years ago . A large plain between Britain and Continental Europe, known as Doggerland, persisted much longer, probably until around 5600 BC . By around 4000 BC, the island was populated by people with a Neolithic culture . However, no written language of the pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain has survived; therefore, the history, culture and way of life of pre-Roman Britain are known mainly through archaeological finds . Although the main evidence for the period is archaeological, available genetic evidence is increasing, and views of British prehistory are evolving accordingly . Toponyms and the like constitute a small amount of linguistic evidence, from river and hill names, which is covered in the article about pre-Celtic Britain and the Celtic invasion . </P>

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