Posted on 02/17/2014 1:08:17 PM PST by Renfield
Human remains dug up from an ancient grave in Oxfordshire add to a growing body of evidence that Britain's fifth-century transition from Roman to Anglo-Saxon was cultural rather than bloody.
The traditional historical narrative is one of brutal conquest, with invaders from the North wiping out and replacing the pre-existing population.
But a new study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, hints at a more peaceful process. Dr Andrew Millard, from Durham University, is one of the study's authors.
'The main controversy over the years has centred on how many Anglo-Saxons came across the North Sea,' he says.
'Was it a mass invasion, where the existing population was wiped out completely or forced back into Wales, or was it a small band of elites whose ways were then adopted very quickly?'...
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Ping
Every power which tried eventually suffered the same fate. They collapsed under their own draw-down on resources directly proportionate to distance from homelands.
With the Romans on the descent by then what type of logistics would have helped them fight their way out of there?
I’d long thought they’d left fragmentarily.
“Time to head home, boys,” the Legion commander says. Though I bet a lot of ‘em went AWOL and stayed.
Tegid, considered the father of the modern Irish race, was actually born in Wales about 300 a.d.
Thus, the peoples of the British Isles are actually an amalgamation of races descended from both natives and invaders.
One way of looking at it was that Roman Britain stopped enforcing immigration laws. They also couldn’t collect enough taxes to pay the Army, which either left or dissolved.
“One way of looking at it was that Roman Britain stopped enforcing immigration laws. They also couldn’t collect enough taxes to pay the Army, which either left or dissolved.”
Hadrian’s Wall was the ultimate in stopping immigration; I think it was more of the latter. While Rome conquered England, they never populated it; in the end, they left - leaving it to the people we see there today.
There were two branches of ancient Celtic: Q-Celtic, of which the Gaelic of Ireland and Scottish Gaelic survive (Manx was a third but recently died out), and P-Celtic, which was everything else (Gaulish, the language of ancient Britain, Galatian, etc.) of which Welsh and Breton survive today. Cornish was in this group but died out 200+ years ago.
Stonehenge was built before the Celtic speakers arrived in the British Isles--there were people living there for thousands of years before the Celts arrived.
As you are probably aware, Cornish, Breton and Manx still survive in the academic realm of ancient language departments.
“One way of looking at it was that Roman Britain stopped enforcing immigration laws. They also couldn’t collect enough taxes to pay the Army, which either left or dissolved.”
The legions in Roman Britain were called one by one to return to Continental Europe to fight in the wars, foreign and civil, elsewhere in the Roman Empire.
At one point a civil war between claimants to the Roman imperial throne resulted in Rome’s loss of Gaul, and the lines of communication between Rome and Roman Britain were loss for a considerable time. During this period in which Roman Britain was relatively cutoff from Rome, the Germanic invaders increased their military threat against Roman Britain.
In response, Roman Britain rallied its society and defenses in part with the raising of a homegrown Roman legion recruited from among the cadre of legionaire retirees and the people of Roman Britain rather than the customary enlistees from the farthest reaches of the empire. No sooner had this new British Roman legion succeeded in stemming the tide of foreign invaders and raiders, when Rome reestablished contact long enough to order this legion to leave Britain to battle in the wars elsewhere in the empire. This left Roman Britain once again without an organized, trained, and experienced legion to serve in its own defense.
There are people who have tried to revive Cornish (maybe mainly in Cornwall) but I think they have to "fill in the gaps" with material from Welsh (like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park which were recreated with the help of frog DNA).
History can be confusing.
There are people who have tried to revive Cornish (maybe mainly in Cornwall) but I think they have to "fill in the gaps" with material from Welsh (like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park which were recreated with the help of frog DNA).
Interesting phenomenon, this idea of trying to save dying languages. Now, I'm fascinated by language, but I just don't quite see the point of saving one that has no use.
But modern nationalism tends to promote the dominant language of a country above all others. I think it is desirable for immigrants to America to become fluent in English, but we shouldn't accelerate the disappearance of Indian languages that were spoken here pre-1607.
As I understand it, Welsh actually derives from the old German root word for foreigner. Ironic given that the Germanic invaders were the foreigners. The self identifying word for the Romano-Britons was ‘Cymri’ and echoes of that can still be found in their western strongholds of Cymru (Wales), Cumberland (the Lakes region) and at more of a stretch, Kernow (Cornwall).
Cornish is now an official minority language in the UK and is growing strongly after dying out in the 60’s. A group of far sighted individuals spent a long time interviewing and taping the last fluent speaker before her death and have used that work to rebuild the language.
Yes, I agree that the preservation of knowledge of these languages is important. I only criticize attempts to prop up languages when people really have no interest or need of using them in everyday life.
SC—A number of authors have investigated these dykes, and concluded that they are pre-Celtic (of Neolithic age, constructed contemporaneously with Stonehenge and Avebury), and have nothing at all to do with defense or warfare. In particular, I would direct you to a book entitled Before the Delusion, by William Gleeson. In this case, he uses the vehicle of fiction (a novel) to present his arguments, which I find more compelling than claims that the dykes were built by Romanized Britons to stem Saxon invasions.
Life was enough to kill most everyone by the age of 30.
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Good point.
Actually, no. They left when the Roman governor of Britain decided that he should be Emperor, and he took the Legions with him. After his rebellion was defeated, the Legions were never replaced.
That left the coasts clear (literally) for the Saxon pirates to raid at will. One of the local British kings invited a Saxon chief to take over the defense of his kingdom in return for land. The Saxons then just moved in and took over.
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