The Isle of Wight is rich in historical and archaeological sites, from prehistoric fossil beds with dinosaur remains, to dwellings and artefacts dating back to the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman periods.
Formation The River Solent was the largest tributary of the Channel River that drained the Hampshire Basin from the Early Pleistocene or late Pliocene. During the Mesolithic period, sea levels in northern Europe were some 30 to 40 metres lower than today, and the land that became Britain was a peninsula of northern Europe. The island was formed at the end of the last Ice Age, about 8–9000 years ago, as sea levels rose, and the land of southern Britain sunk due to the post-glacial rebound of the north that had been under the ice. This flooded the former river valley of the Solent to the north, and the future English Channel to the south, and cut Wight off from the island of Britain. Once open to the sea, tidal scouring widened the Solent.
Early history Prehistory
The first inhabitants are assumed to have been hunter-gatherers migrating by land during the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) period, as the ice age began to recede and the climate improved. The island has no visible Paleolithic or Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) sites, but flints from these periods have been found and are on display at Carisbrooke Castle.
Neolithic There are theories that, during the Neolithic era, Bouldnor was a seaport that traded with the Middle East, or that nomadic gatherers roamed over wider areas than previously thought, because wheat was present there 8,000 years ago, hundreds if not thousands of years before it is known to have been grown in northern Europe.
The Longstone near Mottistone (the standing stone on the hill later becoming an Anglo-Saxon meeting place, this 'moot-stone' giving name to the nearby settlement) is one of the only three surviving Neolithic (New Stone Age) sites, along with a long barrow on Afton Down and a 'mortuary enclosure' on Tennyson Down.
Bronze Age Between the Neolithic and Roman eras, Southeastern Britain experienced significant migration from the continent. Finds of late Late Iron Age coins, such as the South Wight and Shalfleet Hoards, suggest trading links both with nearby tribes and further afield. The coins and ingots from these hoards had been defaced before burial, for reasons that are unknown; this feature has only been found in coin finds from Hampshire and Wight. The variety of origin of the coins found locally is more marked than elsewhere in Britain and suggests that the island may have had a degree of political separation.
The island has over 240 bronze age burial mounds or round barrows, nearly all on the chalk downs. One plough-damaged barrow on Gallibury Down was excavated during 1979-80 and dated to between 1600-1400 BCE. There is also evidence from aerial photographs of ring ditches (the remains of barrows) on the limestone near Bembridge. The only significant Iron Age find is at Chillerton Down, where there was a hill fort. However three of the Roman villa sites have also produced late Iron Age pottery, which suggests a continuity of occupation.
Bronze Age Britain had large reserves of tin from mining in Cornwall and Devon. Tin is necessary to alloy with copper to produce bronze. At that time the sea level was much lower, and so tin for export could be brought across the Solent at low tide on carts, or possibly on boats such as those found at Ferriby. A shortage of tin during the Bronze Age collapse and trade disruptions in the Mediterranean around 1300 BCE may have forced metalworkers to seek an alternative to bronze.
Etymology It has been suggested that a 1st century BCE reference to () by the Graeco-Sicilian Diodorus Siculus might refer to the Isle of Wight, although St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall is now considered more likely.Full but inconclusive discussion is at romanmap.com - (accessed 11 August 2009) A century later, Pliny the Elder uses its Latin name and in the mid-2nd century Ptolemy confirms the position of Vectis as "...below " (probably the port near Bosham). The Roman historian Suetonius calls the island in his account of its capture in year 43, referring to the future emperor Vespasian, who "proceeded to Britain where he fought thirty battles, subjugated two warlike tribes, and captured more than twenty towns, besides the entire Isle of ".
The form seems reasonably robust but Rivet and Smith were uncertain of its etymology. A gloss on an 1164 manuscript of Nennius equates Old English with Latin , which has encouraged writers to think that the island sits like a lever (Latin ) between the two arms of the Solent. The word could be Brittonic, from a Celtic root akin to Irish 'journey' and Welsh 'work'. A detailed study in 2010 draws attention to the Proto-Germanic word , which would have been in Latin, and survives in various modern-language forms, including Modern English whit 'something small' (English wight is considered a revival from Middle English), German 'dwarf, imp', Dutch 'little girl' and Norwegian 'being, creature (especially supernatural)'. This might suggest that the meaning is something like 'daughter island' or 'little companion'; however if Germanic languages were not widely spoken in Britain during the Roman era, as has been the consensus, then they would be an unlikely source for the Latin . However more recently it has been argued that the inhabitants of southern Britain at this time may indeed have been Germanic, rather than Celtic, which could re-open the possibility of the island's name having Germanic roots.
Wight appears at least 5 times in medieval Irish sources.
Roman era The Romans occupied southern Britain, including the Isle of Wight, for nearly four hundred years. The Romans built no towns on the island, but it became an agricultural centre, and at least seven Roman villas are known.Villas are known at Brading, Carisbrooke, Clatterford (southwest of Carisbrooke), Combley (on Robin Hill), Gurnard, Newport, and Rock (north of Brighstone). The Roman villas at Newport and Brading have been excavated and are open to the public.David Wharton Lloyd, Nikolaus Pevsner, (2006), The Buildings of England: Isle of Wight, pages 15-16. Yale University Press. When fully developed around AD 300, Brading was probably the largest on the Island, being a courtyard villa with impressive mosaics, suggesting a good income was being made from the agricultural produce of the island.
At Brading Villa a field system can be seen near Brading Down; the remains associated with the villa can be seen as low banks. The chalk downland was cultivated in prehistoric and Roman times because the light chalk soil was not too difficult to plough. It is very likely indeed that the Romans grew vines, as the climate was then warmer than it is now, and on this basis nearby Adgestone Vineyard claims to be the oldest in Britain.
By the late fourth or early fifth centuries AD, Roman troops and officials had withdrawn from Britain.
Jutish kingdom In Bede's ecclesiastical history, Vecta, along with parts of Hampshire and most of Kent, was settled by Jutes.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic and his son Cynric conquered the island in 530. The Chronicle states that after Cerdic died in 534, the island was given to his nephews Stuf and Wihtgar, who were said to be of Jutish and Gothic origin. The two brothers were said to have set about exterminating the native Britons of Wight, either killing them or driving them into exile. However, it is uncertain whether "Wihtgar", who is believed to have died in 544, was a real person or came from a misunderstood place name. The "Men of Wight" were known as "Wihtwara". Carisbrooke was known as the "Fort of the Men of Wight" ("Wihtwarasburgh"), or alternatively the fort may have been named after Wihtgar.
It is believed that the island became a Jutish kingdom ruled by King Stuf and his successors, until 661 when it was invaded by Wulfhere of Mercia and forcibly converted to Christianity. When he returned to Mercia the island reverted to paganism. Arwald was its last Jutish King and the last pagan king in Anglo-Saxon England until the Vikings.
Bede describes the invasion of the island in 686 (noting that Bede was writing fifty years later, and some of his dates are considered approximate) by Caedwalla, a Wessex King. He writes: "After Caedwalla had obtained possession of the kingdom of the Gewissae, he took also the Isle of Wight, which till then was entirely given over to idolatry, and by merciless slaughter, endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and to place in their stead people from his own province; binding himself by a vow, though it is said that he was not yet regenerated in Christ, to give the fourth part of the land and of the spoil to the Lord, if he took the Island. He fulfilled this vow by giving the same for the service of the Lord to Bishop Wilfrid...". Arwald died in action, and his nephews were betrayed to Caedwalla and executed. Bede adds that 300 "hides" (each being the land that could support a family) were given to the Church.
Little archaeological evidence of this period survives. The main sites are cemeteries at Chessell Down and Bowcombe Down, both excavated in the nineteenth century to produce skeletons, iron swords, knives, and jewellery such as brooches and buckles. The biggest brooches are in the British Museum but some swords, parts of shields, small brooches and buckles are retained in the county archaeological centre.
The Saxon period and the Vikings From about 685-686 the island can be considered part of Wessex, and after the West Saxon kings ruled all England, then part of England.
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells how Wiht-land suffered from Viking raids: "And then another time they lay in the Isle of Wight, and meanwhile ate out of Hampshire and of Sussex". Alfred the Great's navy defeated the Danes in 871 after they had "ravaged Devon and the Isle of Wight".
Around 900 the kingdom was divided into shires, and the island became part of the shire of Hampshire.
During the second wave of Viking attacks in the reign of Ethelred the Unready (975-1014) the island was often used by them as a temporary winter base, when they were unable to shelter with their 'cousins' in Normandy.
In 1002 Ethelred ordered the killing of all Danes in England, in the St. Brice's Day Massacre.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Abingdon ms, quoted in Ryan Lavelle, Aethelred II: King of the English, The History Press, 2008, p. 104 From 1003 onwards, Sweyn Forkbeard raided England, which may partly have been to avenge the massacre.Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 384–6.
Also in 1002 Ethelred had married the Norman princess Emma, and then persuaded the Normans not to give the Vikings shelter. Thereafter they were more regular visitors to the island. In 1006 the Chronicle records: "when it drew near to winter, the army travelled home, and after Martinmas the raiding-army came to its secure base on the Isle of Wight and there provided themselves everywhere whatever they needed", and then records raids that they made from there into southern England.
In 1013 Sweyn began a more concerted invasion, and Ethelred was forced to flee to the island: "And then at midwinter the King turned from the fleet to the Isle of Wight, and was there for the season; and after the season turned across the sea to Richard [of Normandy], and was there until the happy event of Swein's death occurred.".
After Ethelred himself died, England came under Danish rule, and the island continued to be a base for their fleets as recorded by the Chronicle in 1022: "Here King Cnut went out with his ships to Wight."