ABSTRACT
The events of the early first millennium BC set the stage for what followed. Fewer resources balanced against greater demands, whether because of environmental change, or social factors, or a combination of the two, led to a period of aggression, unrest, uncertainty and tension. Traditionally the emergence of a hillfort-based society after about 650 BC is interpreted as the response to these conflicts, and in some areas this is true. But taking Britain as a whole, the problems of the early first millennium were resolved in different ways in different places. Especially important were regional variations in subsistence economy and in political organization.
