What People in Latvia Know about Scotland

Introduction.

The main aim is to prove that people in Latvia don’t know much about Scotland and its culture.
Up to this moment I hadn’t showed any interest about Great Britain and now I want to discover something new about it. So I chose this theme, which is “Scotland” to study it and to learn something about another culture, history, even drinks.
Why in English? In English because I want to increase my English knowledge and progress in writing, speaking and to get a new experience.
The first aim of this job is to explore one of the British old cultures, what they made and discovered for the modern world and to get closer to Scots.
The second aim is to gather some information and after that to question people what they know about Scotland?
This is the first step to my main target to improve my knowledge about some interesting nations and their culture.


1.HISTORY
1.1.Prehistoric Times

It is impossible to appreciate Scotland without some awareness of its history. There are remnants of the past wherever you visit; therefore lack of background information could lead to frustration. There are several key events that are easy to remember and form the main stepping-stones in the country’s antiquity.
[http://www.scotland.com/culture/history / ]
Prior to the Ice Age little evidence of man’s existence in this northern spur of the British Isles exists. Dating from 7,000BC there remains of brochs, burial chambers and other stone constructions have been uncovered indicating the presence of early nomadic tribes, probably originating from Asia, passing through Europe and eventually coming into Britain and Ireland. They settled climate that was several degrees warmer than we know today or continued to travel living in caves or temporary dwellings and hunting the plentiful reindeer, elk and wild boar.
[http://www.scotland.com/culture/history / ]
The Neolithic period 4400 – 2000BC saw settlement along the Scottish west – coast with early travellers using the Atlantic as their main route of transport. Villages such as the remarkably well-preserved Skara Brae in Orkney were probably common throughout the west coast where small groups lived off the land and nearby sea. The Bronze Age ‘Beaker People’, so called because of the clay beakers found in there single graves, were responsible for the many ‘henges’ or groups of upright stones found throughout Scotland. These were often formed into a circle such as the Stones of Callanish of the Western Isles or the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney. Most of these date from around 2,000BC.
[http://www.scotland.com/culture/history / ]
Between 1000BC and 500BC, Celtic tribes arrived from France via Ireland. They also settled the western coasts of Britain establishing new standards in the design of their dwellings and fortifications while their culture and society flourished. With them came the Iron Age and the advent of new weapons such as swords and shields, which subsequently lead to a need for better defensive buildings. The Celts, an enlightened race with fair hair and a rich cultural life as well as talent for metal-working and agriculture, introduced fortified timber structures which were followed by stone hill-forts of which are still standing.
[http://www.scotland.com/culture/history / ]
At the time of Julius Caesar’s first advance into Britain in 55BC, Celtic tribes or clans had spread throughout Scotland and, as demand for good agricultural land grew, were becoming increasingly fractious with one another. Two principal groups appeared above the isthmus between the rivers Forth and Clyde. The Romans merely called them Picts and North Britons. Roman rule had brought long-term benefits to conquered nations throughout Europe but the Picts would have nothing to do with it. Major attempts were made to subjugate them around AD80 by Agricola, the Roman governor, but despite victories, the Romans retreated south to build first Hadrian’s Wall between Carlisle and the Tyne near Newcastle, then later in AD143, the Antonine Wall between the rivers Forth and Clyde. In due course the Romans withdrew entirely to lend their services elsewhere in their troubled Empire, leaving the Picts free to swoop south and havoc with lowland dwellers.

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