The islands of Britain have been inhabited by various cultures during the course of the last 500,000 years, and archaeologists have been able to study this rich history through the careful analysis of artifacts which have been reclaimed from archaeological digs and excavations. The inhabitation of Britain by hominids during the last one-half million years is unquestionable, but because all of the pre-Roman inhabitants of current-day Britain had no written language, any insights and speculations are purely conjectural and are open to debate.