Summary of Peter Ackroyd's Foundation

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The first sarsen stone was raised in the circle of Stonehenge, and the land we call England was already very ancient.

The people who arrived from southern Europe and settled in places as diverse as the areas now known as Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, and Devon were the ancestors of the English.#2 The study of prehistory must also be the study of geography.

When the settlers arrived in England, 15,000 years ago, the North Sea was a great plain of lakes and woodland.

It now lies submerged, rich in the unseen evidence of the past.#3 The Mesolithic English lived in settlements such as the one found at Thatcham in Berkshire.

The first English house was made of flexible saplings, bent over and covered with hides.

It measured approximately 20 feet by 16 feet.#4 The English had already begun to differ from each other 8,000 years ago.

The Lowland Zone, which was built upon soft limestone, chalk and sandstone, was a place of low hills, plains, and river valleys.

The Highland Zone in the north and west was made up of granite, slate, and ancient hard limestone.