Melton has a rich array of Prehistoric sites and finds. The oldest here are Palaeolithic and Mesolithic flint tools from Scalford, discovered during fieldwalking and the only evidence of people who had a nomadic existence. Their wooden, wicker, antler and bone implements and tools rarely survive.

Farming began in the Neolithic, meaning people needed to settle in one place. Pottery began to be made and trading networks for items such as polished stone axes developed across Britain.

In the Early Bronze Age tools continued to be made in flint. Objects were also made in gold although this would have been a very rare and valuable material only available to the elite members of society who seem to emerge in this period.

People lived in roundhouses in small family groups and buried their dead in cemeteries, often cremating the dead and placing their remains in urns which were then buried in the ground, sometimes with a mound or barrow on top.

The Iron Age begins c. 800 BC when evidence for iron working appears until AD 43 when the Roman army invaded Britain.

Burrough Hillfort is the most prominent Iron Age site in the county. People lived in roundhouses within the ramparts but it was probably also a site where the wider community came together for social, economic and ritual reasons.

Gold and silver coins were introduced in the Late Iron Age and were used by the elite. There seem to have been tribal groups inhabiting Britain and the coins reflect this, the local tribe in the East Midlands being the Corieltavi. They stamped their coins with distinctive abstract horses and hairy boars.

Handmade pottery vessels were replaced by Roman influenced wheel thrown types at the end of the Iron Age.