ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Timeline of prehistoric Scotland

Okay kiddo, let's talk about prehistoric Scotland! But first, do you know what prehistoric means? It means the time before people wrote things down, so we have to figure out what happened by looking at other things, like bones and rocks.

Now, the earliest time we know about in Scotland is called the Palaeolithic. That's a big word, but it just means the really, really old time when people lived as hunter-gatherers. They would find food by hunting animals like deer and bison, and by gathering fruits and nuts.

After that came the Mesolithic time. At this point, people started settling down in one place instead of moving around all the time. They still hunted and gathered, but now they also started to farm and make tools out of stone.

Next up is the Neolithic time. This is when people started building big structures, like Stonehenge in England. In Scotland, they built something called a cairn, which is a big pile of stones. They also started keeping animals like cows and sheep, and using pottery to cook and store food.

Then came the Bronze Age. This is when people figured out how to make things out of bronze, a mixture of copper and tin. They used bronze to make weapons, like swords and arrows, and to make decorative objects like jewellery.

Finally, we have the Iron Age. This is when people figured out how to make tools and weapons out of iron. They also built hillforts, which are big walls built on hills to protect their homes from enemies.

So, that's a brief rundown of prehistoric Scotland, from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. But remember, there's still so much we don't know, and archaeologists are still discovering new things all the time!