ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the mainland Europe in the fifth millennium bc, to chart the start and spread of the Neolithic in the areas closest to Britain and Ireland. It considers the precise date for the start of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland and what constitutes the British and Irish Neolithic. The chapter explores the transition to the Neolithic throughout north-west Europe. The late Mesolithic people in both Britain and Ireland were particularly drawn to small islands. The Neolithic has its origins outside of Europe. From around 10,000 bc, various hunter-gatherer groups domesticated first plants, and then animals, which formed the basis for an early agricultural way of life in the Near East. During the fifth millennium bc there was a change from a long-established Mesolithic way of life to the Neolithic in Brittany and Normandy. Just prior to this Bandkeramik farming groups moved out of their core central European homeland to the north and west of the Paris Basin.
