Britain and Europe’s ‘rocky relationship’ nothing new

THEY once rubbed along as neighbours, sharing culture, trade and even fashion across the Channel.

But the late Neolithic era saw its own version of an early Brexit as Britain was cut off from the Continent for nearly 1,000 years, a new exhibition by English Heritage is to show.

The “ebb and flow” of Britain’s relationship with the mainland will be explored at Stonehenge in a collaboration with the British Museum which experts claim will show how the “rocky relationship between the British Isles and Europe is nothing new”.

Objects in the display include a 6,500-year-old jade axe and an elaborate gold neck piece made around 4,000 years ago, which are believed to be from or influenced by Europe.

English Heritage’s Making Connections will highlight the “shifting relationship between the British Isles and Continental Europe”, historians said.

The exhibition will tell the story of an early Neolithic period, before Stonehenge was built, which saw the mass migration of the first farmers and the earliest metal workers.

It will also explore the late Neolithic era, when Stonehenge was being constructed, which was in contrast a “period of relative isolation for the British Isles”, English Heritage said.

“For about 700 years, although styles of pottery, monuments and ritual activities are shared across Britain and Ireland, they are not found [in Europe].”

Making Connections: Stonehenge in its Prehistoric World opens on Oct 12 at Stonehenge, Wilts.