History of the Isle of Wight 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. 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. The Roman villas at Newport and Brading have been excavated and are open to the public. When fully developed around 300 AD, Brading was probably the largest on the Island, being a courtyard villa with impressive
Prehistoric Britain occupied Europe, or Britain's large mineral reserves. See Roman Britain for the history of this subsequent period. Prehistoric Britain Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Britain for almost a million years. The Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD is conventionally regarded as the end of Prehistoric Britain and the start of recorded history in the island, although some historical information is available from before then. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints probably made by "Homo antecessor". The oldest human fossils, around 500,000