Halstatt
The name given to an Iron-Age culture and style of weapons based on a site excavated in Austria.

Handaxe
A general-purpose tool made over a very long period in the Palaeolithic era (Old Stone Age) by removing flakes from a rock core to produce a pear- or oval-shaped tool as big as a hand. Many have been found in gravels and elsewhere, and this at least indicates that human beings lived in Britain up to about 450,000 years ago. See also adze blade.

Hide
See Burghal Hidage.

Hillforts
From the end of the Bronze Age, and especially in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, fortified settlements known as hillforts start to appear in upland areas, especially in southern England. These are often massive, complicated structures with surrounding ramparts and ditches. Some of them served as small towns and administrative centres, as well as fortifications at times of conflict. Their emergence, which seems to have followed a long period of relative peace and stability, is thought to be related to increased conflict and war, probably as a result of increased population and perhaps linked to invasions or settlements of Britain by the people known as the Celts. Some hillforts, such as Maiden Castle, formed centres of resistance to the Roman conquest after 43 AD. Read more about hillforts here.

Hunter-gatherers
Before the introduction of animal husbandry and agriculture, and for a long time afterwards, the principal ways of getting enough to eat relied on the gathering of wild foods, berries, fruits, nuts, fungi and so on, as well as fishing and the hunting of wild animals. The term 'hunter-gatherers' refers to groups who principally get their food from non-agricultural sources, and of course, there are still people in the world today whose economy is based on this. It is easy to think that such people are at the margins of survival and are always looking for something to eat, but studies suggest the opposite – that it is a very leisurely existence, providing that population numbers remain low.