The area now occupied by the City of
Sheffield has been inhabited since at least the late Upper Palaeolithic period,
about 12,800 years ago. The earliest evidence of human occupation in the
Sheffield area was found at Creswell Crags to the east of the city. In the Iron
Age the area became the southernmost territory of the Pennine tribe called the
Brigantes. It is this tribe who are thought to have constructed several hill
forts in and around Sheffield. Following the departure of the Romans, the
Sheffield area may have been the southern part of the Celtic kingdom of Elmet,
with the rivers Sheaf and
