The history of Wales begins with the arrival of human beings in the region thousands of years ago. Neanderthals lived in what is now Wales, or Cymru to the Welsh people, at least 230,000 years ago, while Homo sapiens arrived by about 31,000 BC. However, continuous habitation by modern humans dates from the period after the end of the last ice age around 9000 BC, Wales has many remains from the Mesolithic and Bronze Age. During the Iron Age the region, like all of Britain south of the Firth of Forth, was dominated by the Celtic Britons and the Brittonic language; the Romans, who began their conquest of Britain in AD 43, first campaigned in what is now northeast Wales in 48 against the Deceangli, gained total control of the region with their defeat of the Ordovices in 79. The Romans departed from Britain in the 5th century. Thereafter Brittonic language and culture began to splinter, several distinct groups formed; the Welsh people were the largest of these groups, are discussed independently of the other surviving Brittonic-speaking peoples after the 11th century.

A number of kingdoms formed in present-day Wales in the post-Roman period. While the most powerful ruler was acknowledged as King of the Britons, some rulers extended their control over other Welsh territories and into western England, none were able to unite Wales for long. Internecine struggles and external pressure from the English and the Norman conquerors of England, led to the Welsh kingdoms coming under the sway of the English crown. In 1282, the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd led to the conquest of the Principality of Wales by King Edward I of England; the Welsh launched several revolts against English rule, the last significant one being that led by Owain Glyndŵr in the early 15th century. In the 16th century Henry VIII, himself of Welsh extraction as a great grandson of Owen Tudor, passed the Laws in Wales Acts aiming to incorporate Wales into the Kingdom of England. Under England's authority, Wales became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 and the United Kingdom in 1801. Yet, the Welsh retained their culture despite heavy English dominance.

The publication of the significant first complete Welsh translation of the Bible by William Morgan in 1588 advanced the position of Welsh as a literary language. The 18th century saw the beginnings of two changes that would affect Wales, the Welsh Methodist revival, which led the country to turn nonconformist in religion, the Industrial Revolution. During the rise of the British Empire, 19th century Southeast Wales in particular experienced rapid industrialisation and a dramatic rise in population as a result of the explosion of the coal and iron industries. Wales played a willing role in World War One; the industries of Empire in Wales declined in the 20th century with the end of the British Empire following the Second World War, while nationalist sentiment and interest in self-determination rose. The Labour Party replaced the Liberal Party as the dominant political force in the 1920s. Wales played a considerable role during World War Two along with the rest of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Allies, its cities were bombed extensively during the Nazi Blitz.

The nationalist party Plaid Cymru gained momentum from the 1960s. In a 1997 referendum Welsh voters approved the devolution of governmental responsibility to a National Assembly for Wales, which first met in 1999; the earliest known human remain discovered in modern-day Wales is a Neanderthal jawbone, found at the Bontnewydd Palaeolithic site in the valley of the River Elwy in North Wales, whose owner lived about 230,000 years ago in the Lower Palaeolithic period. The Red Lady of Paviland, a human skeleton dyed in red ochre, was discovered in 1823 in one of the Paviland limestone caves of the Gower Peninsula in Swansea, South Wales. Despite the name, the skeleton is that of a young man who lived about 33,000 years ago at the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period, it is considered to be the oldest known ceremonial burial in Western Europe. The skeleton was found along with jewellery made from a mammoth's skull. Following the last ice age, Wales became the shape it is today by about 8000 BC and was inhabited by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.

The earliest farming communities are now believed to date from about 4000 BC, marking the beginning of the Neolithic period. This period saw the construction of many chambered tombs dolmens or cromlechs; the most notable examples of megalithic tombs include Bryn Celli Ddu and Barclodiad y Gawres on Anglesey, Pentre Ifan in Pembrokeshire, Tinkinswood Burial Chamber in the Vale of Glamorgan. Metal tools first appeared in Wales about 2500 BC copper followed by bronze; the climate during the Early Bronze Age is thought to have been warmer than at present, as there are many remains from this period in what are now bleak uplands. The Late Bronze Age saw. Much of the copper for the production of bronze came from the copper mine on the Great Orme, where prehistoric mining on a large scale dates from the middle Bronze Age. Radiocarbon dating has shown the earliest hillforts in what would become Wales, to have been constructed during this period. Historian John Davies, theorises that a worsening climate after around 1250 BC required more productive land to be defended.

The earliest iron implement found in Wales is a sword fro

"Empty Orchestra" is the fourth episode of the third series of the British dark comedy anthology television programme Inside No. 9. Written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith and directed by Guillem Morales, the episode was first shown on 7 March 2017, on BBC Two. "Empty Orchestra" is set in a karaoke booth, follows a group of work colleagues—Greg, Connie and Duane —celebrating the promotion of Roger. Rebekah Hinds stars. "Empty Orchestra" is close to a musical. The characters sing throughout much of the episode, with the story being told through the lyrics and the way the characters interact during songs. In comparison to other episodes of Inside No. 9, "Empty Orchestra" is upbeat, features romantic elements, lacks explicitly bloody or macabre references. The filming experience and resulting episode was a highlight of the series for Pemberton, but raised technical challenges, in part due to simultaneous singing and talking. Television critics had a mixed reaction to the episode. In both The Telegraph and The National, it was characterised as weaker than others in the series.

The change in tone dividing commentators, some of whom found the setting and constant noise a distraction. The writing and production, were praised, while the cast were commended both for their performances and their willingness to embrace the episode's concept; the third series of Inside No. 9 was announced in October 2015, was publicised beginning in January 2016, at which time Sarah Hadland, Javone Prince and Tamzin Outhwaite were named as guest stars in the series. "Empty Orchestra" was the fourth episode of the series, the third of a run of five episodes beginning February 2017—the series's first episode being the December 2016 Christmas special "The Devil of Christmas". It was first shown on 7 March 2017, on BBC Two."Empty Orchestra"—the name of, a literal translation of the Japanese word karaoke—was written by Pemberton and Shearsmith, was directed by Guillem Morales. It was the last episode of the series to be written, was filmed on a set constructed at Shepperton Studios; the sides of the set could be removed for filming purposes, for the most part, the performers were confined."Empty Orchestra" was intended as a wholly musical episode.

The initial conceit was that the story would be wholly told through song. For Shearsmith, the reality of this was difficult to maintain; the closest example to the original intention of storytelling wholly through singing in the final episode was the performance of "I Know Him So Well". Nonetheless, the resulting episode, for Pemberton, was "a kind of musical", in that "there's music all the way through it". While he would be interested in doing "a proper La La Land-style musical" in the future, "Empty Orchestra" serves to " that box to some degree"; the idea of a love story, how Pemberton characterised "Empty Orchestra", was "very appealing". Pemberton chose the episode as his favourite of the series, calling it different to other episodes of Inside No. 9. At the series launch, speaking in reference to the previous episode "The Riddle of the Sphinx", Pemberton said that "When you’ve cut someone's bum off and eaten it, you kind of go, better try something different!" One influence on the episode was Shane Meadows's This Is England.

"Empty Orchestra" stars Pemberton as Roger, celebrating a promotion with five colleagues: Greg, played by Shearsmith. Rebekah Hinds stars as Chantel; as an anthology series, Inside No. 9 features a new cast each episode, which the writers say re-energises them. During filming and Hadland said that Pemberton and Shearsmith would not enjoy working with another cast more. Howlett, like Janet, is deaf. Unlike Howlett, Janet is "quite passive, quiet and happy looking after people her boss"; as Janet sings, Howlett faced a particular acting challenge. She possesses, she explained, "very little understanding of what constitutes music, no idea at all about things like keys, pitch or melody – I struggle with the concept of'high' and'low' sounds"; the song Janet sings—"Only You" by Yazoo—was challenging. Howlett sought help from the composer John Chambers, with whom she had worked, with his help, learnt the song's rhythm and placed the lyrics relative to it. Chambers produced a "board of'tune'", with words sung with a high note placed physically higher on the board, Howlett tried various methods to train herself to sing different pitches.

The whole process took a considerable amount of time, but "In the end, it paid off, because I got the role. It was one of the best and most welcoming sets I've been on in mainstream filming. I never once felt like a token Deaf, rare and beautiful."The writers opted to have the characters in fancy dress to add a layer of visual interest. Outhwaite and Shearsmith expressed their enjoyment of the fancy dress aspect of the episode. Shearsmith wore an inflatable sumo suit, but air in the suit produced sounds that interfered with music; the alternative suit was made of foam. Pemberton's character wore a minimal costume, Pemberton himself was unchanged.

Cutthroats is an interactive fiction computer game written by Michael Berlyn and Jerry Wolper and was published by Infocom in 1984. It was released for the Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, TRS-80, TI-99/4A, Macintosh, it is Infocom's thirteenth game. The game takes place around the fictional Hardscrabble Island. For centuries, Hardscrabble was a thriving seaport, but the local fishing industry died out in the 1920s. Most of the area's remaining population is an assortment of hard-luck types and people of questionable ethics; the player's character is a skilled diver scraping to make ends meet. One night, an old shipmate named Hevlin barges in with a map indicating the locations of two undiscovered shipwrecks. Flashing between excitement and paranoia, Hevlin abruptly leaves, asking the player to safekeep the map; the old sailor is murdered as he steps from the doorway. As the player attempts to mount a perilous dive for sunken treasure, several characters offer their help.

Some of them can be trusted and some can not. Failure to tell the difference between the two can result in an "untimely accident". Making positive contact with the right characters is the only way the player can advance to the actual shipwrecks. Once the dive begins the player must locate and retrieve the treasure from that wreck to complete the game; each time the game is played, either the São Vera or the Leviathan is randomly chosen as the wreck to be explored. The other two locations are red herrings; the game has 68 locations. Each package of Cutthroats contained the following extra items, which Infocom called "feelies": True Tales of Adventure, a fictional magazine catering to self-styled adventurers Four Shipwrecks off Hardscrabble Island, a fictional book "published" by the Hardscrabble Harbor Historical Society with information on the wrecks of São Vera, H. M. S. Intrangisent, The Fianna, S. S. Leviathan. A dive map indicating the locations and depths of the above four ships A "supplemental price list" from Outfitters International featuring a tide table.

As the equipment available does not appear in list form or in any other reference within the game, the player requires the price list packaged with the game for a successful dive. Antic criticized Cutthroats' use of timed puzzles that "made us feel as though were being overly manipulated", called others "obscure and nearly clueless. Be prepare to mail away for the "; the magazine concluded. Cutthroats information at Infocom-if.org Cutthroats overview Scans of the Cutthroats package and feelies