Roman vs Britons Battle of AD43 Never Happened Says Academic

Ancient Origins ^ | December 26, 2019 | Ashley Cowie

[SunkenCiv]

Regarded as one of the nation's most horrific battles, the AD 43 event was actually created by an archaeologist with a flair for storytelling, new research claims. This colorful account was first written by archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler after he excavated the site with his wife between 1936 and 1937, subsequently claiming he had discovered a 'war cemetery'.

And according to a report in The Daily Mail , as a result of Wheeler's lies, for many decades this famous ancient face-off has been described as 'the massacre' of a tribe of Ancient Britons by a Roman legion led by future emperor Vespasian.

Wheeler claimed the remains of the 56 ancient British warriors he had found buried had been interred 'in a rush' and he found what he described as 'terrible injuries'. And having failed to denounce any of these claims, English Heritage, which manages the hillfort site on the outskirts of Dorchester, held this account as the correct history of the site. But now, Dr Miles Russell, Professor of Archaeology at Bournemouth University claims 'absolutely no evidence' exists for any such 'great battle' at Maiden Castle...The real world statistics, according to Dr Russell, prove that '74 per cent of the 52 discovered bodies found suffered violent deaths', but rather than all having died at one battle the remains proved to be from a wide timeframe ranging from 100 BC to 50AD suggesting the people lived through 'multiple periods of stress, competition and conflict'. And perhaps the most disturbing 'fact' in all this is that by 43 AD Maiden Castle 'had largely been abandoned' which means the archaeologist entirely bent actual British history to fit his predetermined romantic notions.

[SunkenCiv]

Maiden Castle Hill fort, Dorset [Source: Dorset Council]

• A new scientific dating technique has revealed there was a building spree more than 5,500 years ago, when many of the most spectacular monuments in the English landscape, such as Maiden Castle in Dorset and Windmill Hill in Wiltshire, were built, used and abandoned in a single lifetime.
  
  The fashion for the monuments, hilltops enclosed by rings of ditches, known to archaeologists as causewayed enclosures, instead of being the ritual work of generations as had been believed, began on the continent centuries earlier but spread from Kent to Cornwall within 50 years in about 3700 BC.
  
  Alex Bayliss, an archaeologist and dating expert at English Heritage, said: "The dates were not what we expected when we began this project but prehistorians are just going to have to get their heads around it, a lot of what we have been taught in the past is complete bollocks."

  Archaeology dating technique uncovers 'property boom' of 3700 BC | 06/07/2011 8:31:41 PM PDT | SunkenCiv | Guardian UK | Monday 6 June 2011 | Maev Kennedy

[SunkenCiv]

Probably should approach this with some caution, because there's a heavy bias against the hillforts actually having been forts. The kumbaya idea that somehow our peaceful ancestors lived in peace in peaceful surroundings of their own making is trying to strangle serious research in Britain, just as it is here. Also, it's Ancient Origins, which is not a great site to use. Also, AO cites the Daily Mail, and well, you get the idea. My comfortable old equipment has a time loading better sources at times, part of the totally non-collusive efforts to ensure public safety online. /sarc

BTW, Vespasian was a highly effective Roman general, who really did romp across Britain reducing one hillfort after another during the one-season initial conquest of souther Britain, during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Later, under Emperor Nero, Vespasian continued to demonstrate his value to Rome, and was in the process of systematically putting down the so-called Jewish rebellion, leaving the denouement to his son Titus as Vespasian himself turned his attention to becoming emperor in his own right, during the Year of Four Emperors (five, really -- Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian). His Flavian dynasty consisted of himself and each of his two sons in succession, lasted barely a generation, yet it stabilized the Empire, and left us with the most enduring symbol of it -- the Colosseum / Coliseum / Flavian Amphitheatre, and the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever made, the Pantheon.

[BenLurkin]

https://webmail.lerctr.org/~transit/healy/wacky.wav

[SunkenCiv]

from the FRchives, another DM-sourced article:

Long-lost Roman roads discovered on flood maps: Hi-tech Lidar data...
Daily Mail (and I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer) | January 1, 2016 | Imogen Calderwood
Posted on 01/12/2016 10:42:00 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3383014/posts

[Tallguy]

Next thing you know they’ll be telling us Nessie isn’t ‘real’?

[Larry Lucido]

Yeah, that’s what they told Augustus about Teutoberg. “Never happened!”

[Billthedrill]

Brian Williams was there. So was Joe Biden, but he doesn’t remember any details.

[SunkenCiv]

Car Dyke [80 mile Roman canal from the River Cam to the River Witham]
EyePeterborough | September 2016 | unattributed
Posted on 03/12/2018 11:56:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3639268/posts

[Leaning Right]

That battle did happen. Brian Williams himself told me.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks!

How much of our ancient history is based on bs/lies/????.

[JimRed]

ACADEMIC (ak-uh-DEM-ik): An individual educated beyond his intelligence who is incapable of creating or providing goods or services of value to others, who hides out in a college or university pontificating and expects to be paid for it, usually from public funds.

[MrEdd]

Just all of that peaceful natives stuff.

[Grampa Dave]

Just all of that peaceful natives stuff.

In between full scale removal of so called under people!

[pax_et_bonum]

More years ago than I am willing to say, I took my young sons to a traveling Smithsonian Viking exhibit.

It was early evening and were standing in front of the glass case which held the weapons when a group of businesspeople and their Smithsonian guide entered the exhibit to our right.

We were about twenty feet behind their guide as they stopped next to a large stone from an English (I think) church in Viking times into which was etched a desperate prayer, part of which went something like “deliver us from the wrath of the Norsemen”.

As the group listened to his introduction speech in the quiet of the museum we couldn’t help but overhear the guide’s comments.

When he said,”Contrary to popular belief, the Vikings were simply peaceful farmers”, the group turned their eyes toward us and the weapons display as I turned to look at them.

For a short moment we were as one, sharing subdued and slightly wide-eyed amazement as we glanced at the peaceful farm tools posing as barbaric weaponry and then back at each other.

:-)

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.google.com/search?q=teutoberg+monument+in+wrong+place

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/maximinusthrax/index

[centurion316]

Recent archaeology would suggest that the Roman invasion in AD 43 was more complex than the notion of a climatic battle. Some, if not most, of the Britan tribes welcomed the Romans and became early allies. They knew the advantages of being a part of the Roman Empire and were motivated to cooperate with the Roman Army.

The Romans also liked to take as hostages the children of local rulers. These hostages were taken to Rome where they were well treated and were taught the Roman system. They were returned to their homeland when the Romans were well established and they became the local rulers, acting as agents for the Roman empire. It was good to be a Roman and most of the world wanted to sign up.

Of course, some tribes resisted, including tribes in Dorset and in Wales. Evidence of Roman battles in Britain is extremely rare with legends and fragments of historical records providing only a few clues of what might have actually occurred.

[SES1066]

Yeah, that’s what they told Augustus about Teutoberg. “Never happened!”

Then Augustus called for Publius Quinctilius Varus to present himself ... crickets. Then he asked about the XVII, XVIII & XIX Legions and ... crickets.

[SunkenCiv]

There’s an old joke, I can’t remember it well enough to do anything but paraphrase, basically, that learning doesn’t progress because new information arises and everyone integrates it into their own learning/teaching, but because the opponents gradually die off.

[SunkenCiv]

• No effin' way! Loch Ness Monster Sightings Reach Record Level

[SunkenCiv]

There' s no Roman newspaper morgue, or archive of reports from the legions, but the surviving information shows that the most habitable and pleasant parts of Britain were conquered straight away, and the dumps (Caledonia for instance) were not bothered with. Britain was a popular place to live and the locals adopted a number of Roman cultural norms. The economy boomed and traded by sea even into Byzantine times, it remained remote from tumults on the continent, and the supposed revolts were short-lived and quickly eliminated and forgotten. Literally the only evidence Boudicca ever lived is found in a Roman account. Modern nationalism among Europeans has included looky-heres to exaggerated ancient resistance that not only was brief and clearly unpopular, but involved earlier coats of paint that the current locals' ancestors superseded.