Apartheid and Economics in Anglo-Saxon England ALEX WOOLF W HEN considering and discussing the fa... more Apartheid and Economics in Anglo-Saxon England ALEX WOOLF W HEN considering and discussing the fate of the Britons within Anglo-Saxon England, we invariably seem to find ourselves forced to choose between two hypotheses. The first of these, and perhaps currently the less fashionable, is that a 'mass migration' of Germanic peoples committed genocide against the inhabitants of the Insular territories they conquered, creating a situation in which all subsequent generations of Anglo-Saxons were descended entirely, or almost entirely, from fifth-century immigrants. The second, the 'elite emulation model', perhaps most clearly articulated in our editor's 1992 monograph Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons, holds that incoming Germans supplied only an aristocratic elite who farmed large estates tilled by native Britons, who gradually aped their lords and became culturally indistinguishable from them over time. 1 Whilst the elite emulation model has become widely accepted amongst British archaeologists, who have, perhaps, become used to the concept of the diffusion of trends in material culture without recourse to models requiring large-scale population movement, it has proved less easy for historians and linguists to accept. This has largely been due to the perceived problem created by the Anglo-Saxon language: Old English seems far too close in both structure and form to its nearest Continental Germanic neighbours and to lack any substantive evidence of influence from either a Celtic or Romance substratum underlying it, which one would expect had large numbers of Britons switched language on passing acquaintance with their landlords then reinforced their competence only by practising amongst themselves. Archaeologists have tended to be dismissive of this evidence, Richard Hodges even describing language as an insoluble 'conundrum'. 2 To some extent this disciplinary divide is the result of natural selection. As youngsters beginning to show an interest in the past, most of us did not clearly distinguish between Archaeology and History, but at university, or shortly before, when we were forced to make the choice between the two, it was only natural that those of us who were more attracted to and had a greater affinity for material culture went down one route and those whose fascination lay with words down another. For this reason archaeologists and historians are likely to place different values upon linguistic evidence.
Den föreliggande rapporten utgör slutredovisning av projektet "utökad samordning av landskapsöver... more Den föreliggande rapporten utgör slutredovisning av projektet "utökad samordning av landskapsövervakning och uppföljning av Natura 2000" som genomförts av SLU på uppdrag av Naturvårdsverket. Projektets arbetsgrupp har bestått av Anders Glimskär, Sören Holm, Göran Ståhl och Mats Walheim (samtliga från SLU). Referensgruppen har bestått av Johan Abenius (Naturvårdsverket), Mora Aronsson (Artdatabanken), Olle Kellner (Länsstyrelsen i Gävleborgs län) och Pär Vik (Naturvårdsverket). Mot slutet av projekttiden medverkade även Henrick Blank (Länsstyrelsen i Jönköpings län), Anders Haglund (Ekologigruppen), Anneli Lundgren (Länsstyrelsen i Östergötlands län), Ola Inghe (Naturvårdsverket), Maria Sjö (Naturvårdsverket), samt Sture Sundquist (SLU) i referensgruppen. Från arbetsgruppens sida riktas ett tack till referensgruppen för deras engagemang och konstruktiva förslag. Särskilt tack till Johan Abenius och Pär Vik som initierade projektet och koordinerade det mot andra pågående Natura 2000-aktiviteter.
The De Excidio Britanniae of Gildas contains the earliest surviving description of Britain writte... more The De Excidio Britanniae of Gildas contains the earliest surviving description of Britain written by a Briton. It comprises an amalgum of received knowledge and contemporary opinion, some of which was consciously retrospective, offered in a style which owes much to the juxtaposition of the island's virtues and its inhabitants' wickedness, for rhetorical purposes. However, assessment of the role that his description played within the whole work does suggest that the material included within it should be considered factually correct by Gildas and his audience. Gildas' debt to Orosius-his main source-was small. In general, the claims of this short document to be considered original are impressive. Analysis tends to support the view that Gildas wrote from a perspective focused in west-central southern Britain, despite his attempt to write for a wider British audience. This section, along with others, is most easily reconciled with composition shortly before 500, rather than the early-mid sixth century date to which it is often ascribed. It contains unmistakable allusions to widespread agriculture and to the alternation of livestock, presumably on a seasonal basis, onto mountain pastures. Such passing references to both intensive and extensive forms of land-use infer that both were normal features of the landscape with which Gildas and his audience were familiar. If such patterns of land-use were characteristic practices when Gildas was writing, then interpretation of the fifth century as a period of population collapse and agrarian dislocation is untenable.
Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 2003
... He is, however, a king in these works, for the first time in the literary record. The very div... more ... He is, however, a king in these works, for the first time in the literary record. The very diversity of evidence, and the lack of consensus in the central Middle Ages as now, are important features in the modern perception of Arthur's role in history. ...
The two visits of Germanus to Britain that Constantius included in his Life of the saint were lon... more The two visits of Germanus to Britain that Constantius included in his Life of the saint were long a staple of insular history. Recently, however, they have come under close scrutiny, leading to the second visit in particular being considered unhistorical. This essay re-examines the two visits in the context of the whole work, concluding that Constantius had access to good-quality information for Germanus's activities. Focusing on two episodes of the first visit, Germanus's journey to the cult site of St Alban and the ‘Alleluia Victory’, allows us to explore what the bishop achieved in Britain. Recent suggestions that Germanus effectively ‘invented’ the cult of St Alban arguably go beyond the evidence available, but the bishop's interaction with the cult was an important, planned part of his anti-Pelagian strategy. The passages describing the two visits are also explored in terms of Constantius's wider purposes in writing the Life. In those terms his investment in stories regarding Germanus in Britain enabled him to develop his hero in ways which accord with his overall vision of an exemplary bishop. Germanus's deeds in Britain, therefore, need to be read both in terms of what they can offer in terms of British history and in the context of this author's wider agenda.
This paper addresses the many facets of Bede's portrayal of the Britons in the Historia ecclesias... more This paper addresses the many facets of Bede's portrayal of the Britons in the Historia ecclesiastica, first by illustrating his attempts to cast the Britons generally in the role of usually villainous biblical types and then by examining his often more positive portrayal of certain Britons and British groups independently of those types. His recommendation of certain British Christians as saints to be imitated as well as his conviction that God has not abandoned them to perdition exempts him from the charge of being unqualifiedly anti-British. Nevertheless, his singular stereotyping of them among all the peoples of Britain reveals an especial virulence not easily explained by his biblically informed world-view.
Book reviewse med_336_1 90..110 The Langobards before the Frankish Conquest: An Ethnographic Pers... more Book reviewse med_336_1 90..110 The Langobards before the Frankish Conquest: An Ethnographic Perspective. Edited by Giorgio Ausenda, Paolo Delogu and Chris Wickham. Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. 2009. vi + 396 pp. + 26 b/w figures. £75. ISBN 9781843834908. Giorgio Ausenda's much deplored passing away in 2007 prevented the speedy publication of this volume that assembles papers from a 2001 conference at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress in San Marino, whose driving force Ausenda was. The eighth and last in a series of volumes dedicated to the examination of the peoples settling in the post-Roman world is a highly entertaining collection and a worthy reflection of Ausenda's legacy. While all papers are valuable contributions to the field of Langobard history and culture by themselves, I cannot help agreeing with the reviewer of an earlier volume of the series that it is the decision to transcribe the discussions of each paper in full that makes this book so fascinating. Through the discussions the papers become embedded in an atmosphere of collegiality and good spirit which is able also to deal with, at times, considerable disagreement on the interpretation of 'ethnicity'. This volume deals with the Langobards, who were latecomers to the prey that was the late Roman empire. Langobard political authority also was, perhaps, the most fragmented among the peoples of early medieval Europe. As such, Paolo Delogu argues, the Langobards were the least likely to benefit from late Roman administrative and cultural traditions. Still, following the model of 'ethnogenesis', perhaps even more fashionable a decade ago than it is today, most of the papers included here agree that the people coming to Italy in 568, calling themselves Langobards, were not an ethnically homogeneous group, and, what is more, that by the seventh century 'serious' ethnic distinction between Langobards and Romans no longer existed. The first two contributions, which examine the pre-Italian history of the Langobards from an archaeological perspective, delve into this theme of ethnicity as a fluid and flexible category straight away. While Neil
Bede, "Imperium", Britain and the Anglo-Saxons the "imperium"-weilding kings ... more Bede, "Imperium", Britain and the Anglo-Saxons the "imperium"-weilding kings of "HE", II, 5 the tribal hidage - its context and purpose regional governance and "imperium" in early England Raedwald - a pagan overking an English Empire - status and ethnicity.
Apartheid and Economics in Anglo-Saxon England ALEX WOOLF W HEN considering and discussing the fa... more Apartheid and Economics in Anglo-Saxon England ALEX WOOLF W HEN considering and discussing the fate of the Britons within Anglo-Saxon England, we invariably seem to find ourselves forced to choose between two hypotheses. The first of these, and perhaps currently the less fashionable, is that a 'mass migration' of Germanic peoples committed genocide against the inhabitants of the Insular territories they conquered, creating a situation in which all subsequent generations of Anglo-Saxons were descended entirely, or almost entirely, from fifth-century immigrants. The second, the 'elite emulation model', perhaps most clearly articulated in our editor's 1992 monograph Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons, holds that incoming Germans supplied only an aristocratic elite who farmed large estates tilled by native Britons, who gradually aped their lords and became culturally indistinguishable from them over time. 1 Whilst the elite emulation model has become widely accepted amongst British archaeologists, who have, perhaps, become used to the concept of the diffusion of trends in material culture without recourse to models requiring large-scale population movement, it has proved less easy for historians and linguists to accept. This has largely been due to the perceived problem created by the Anglo-Saxon language: Old English seems far too close in both structure and form to its nearest Continental Germanic neighbours and to lack any substantive evidence of influence from either a Celtic or Romance substratum underlying it, which one would expect had large numbers of Britons switched language on passing acquaintance with their landlords then reinforced their competence only by practising amongst themselves. Archaeologists have tended to be dismissive of this evidence, Richard Hodges even describing language as an insoluble 'conundrum'. 2 To some extent this disciplinary divide is the result of natural selection. As youngsters beginning to show an interest in the past, most of us did not clearly distinguish between Archaeology and History, but at university, or shortly before, when we were forced to make the choice between the two, it was only natural that those of us who were more attracted to and had a greater affinity for material culture went down one route and those whose fascination lay with words down another. For this reason archaeologists and historians are likely to place different values upon linguistic evidence.
Den föreliggande rapporten utgör slutredovisning av projektet "utökad samordning av landskapsöver... more Den föreliggande rapporten utgör slutredovisning av projektet "utökad samordning av landskapsövervakning och uppföljning av Natura 2000" som genomförts av SLU på uppdrag av Naturvårdsverket. Projektets arbetsgrupp har bestått av Anders Glimskär, Sören Holm, Göran Ståhl och Mats Walheim (samtliga från SLU). Referensgruppen har bestått av Johan Abenius (Naturvårdsverket), Mora Aronsson (Artdatabanken), Olle Kellner (Länsstyrelsen i Gävleborgs län) och Pär Vik (Naturvårdsverket). Mot slutet av projekttiden medverkade även Henrick Blank (Länsstyrelsen i Jönköpings län), Anders Haglund (Ekologigruppen), Anneli Lundgren (Länsstyrelsen i Östergötlands län), Ola Inghe (Naturvårdsverket), Maria Sjö (Naturvårdsverket), samt Sture Sundquist (SLU) i referensgruppen. Från arbetsgruppens sida riktas ett tack till referensgruppen för deras engagemang och konstruktiva förslag. Särskilt tack till Johan Abenius och Pär Vik som initierade projektet och koordinerade det mot andra pågående Natura 2000-aktiviteter.
The De Excidio Britanniae of Gildas contains the earliest surviving description of Britain writte... more The De Excidio Britanniae of Gildas contains the earliest surviving description of Britain written by a Briton. It comprises an amalgum of received knowledge and contemporary opinion, some of which was consciously retrospective, offered in a style which owes much to the juxtaposition of the island's virtues and its inhabitants' wickedness, for rhetorical purposes. However, assessment of the role that his description played within the whole work does suggest that the material included within it should be considered factually correct by Gildas and his audience. Gildas' debt to Orosius-his main source-was small. In general, the claims of this short document to be considered original are impressive. Analysis tends to support the view that Gildas wrote from a perspective focused in west-central southern Britain, despite his attempt to write for a wider British audience. This section, along with others, is most easily reconciled with composition shortly before 500, rather than the early-mid sixth century date to which it is often ascribed. It contains unmistakable allusions to widespread agriculture and to the alternation of livestock, presumably on a seasonal basis, onto mountain pastures. Such passing references to both intensive and extensive forms of land-use infer that both were normal features of the landscape with which Gildas and his audience were familiar. If such patterns of land-use were characteristic practices when Gildas was writing, then interpretation of the fifth century as a period of population collapse and agrarian dislocation is untenable.
Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 2003
... He is, however, a king in these works, for the first time in the literary record. The very div... more ... He is, however, a king in these works, for the first time in the literary record. The very diversity of evidence, and the lack of consensus in the central Middle Ages as now, are important features in the modern perception of Arthur's role in history. ...
The two visits of Germanus to Britain that Constantius included in his Life of the saint were lon... more The two visits of Germanus to Britain that Constantius included in his Life of the saint were long a staple of insular history. Recently, however, they have come under close scrutiny, leading to the second visit in particular being considered unhistorical. This essay re-examines the two visits in the context of the whole work, concluding that Constantius had access to good-quality information for Germanus's activities. Focusing on two episodes of the first visit, Germanus's journey to the cult site of St Alban and the ‘Alleluia Victory’, allows us to explore what the bishop achieved in Britain. Recent suggestions that Germanus effectively ‘invented’ the cult of St Alban arguably go beyond the evidence available, but the bishop's interaction with the cult was an important, planned part of his anti-Pelagian strategy. The passages describing the two visits are also explored in terms of Constantius's wider purposes in writing the Life. In those terms his investment in stories regarding Germanus in Britain enabled him to develop his hero in ways which accord with his overall vision of an exemplary bishop. Germanus's deeds in Britain, therefore, need to be read both in terms of what they can offer in terms of British history and in the context of this author's wider agenda.
This paper addresses the many facets of Bede's portrayal of the Britons in the Historia ecclesias... more This paper addresses the many facets of Bede's portrayal of the Britons in the Historia ecclesiastica, first by illustrating his attempts to cast the Britons generally in the role of usually villainous biblical types and then by examining his often more positive portrayal of certain Britons and British groups independently of those types. His recommendation of certain British Christians as saints to be imitated as well as his conviction that God has not abandoned them to perdition exempts him from the charge of being unqualifiedly anti-British. Nevertheless, his singular stereotyping of them among all the peoples of Britain reveals an especial virulence not easily explained by his biblically informed world-view.
Book reviewse med_336_1 90..110 The Langobards before the Frankish Conquest: An Ethnographic Pers... more Book reviewse med_336_1 90..110 The Langobards before the Frankish Conquest: An Ethnographic Perspective. Edited by Giorgio Ausenda, Paolo Delogu and Chris Wickham. Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. 2009. vi + 396 pp. + 26 b/w figures. £75. ISBN 9781843834908. Giorgio Ausenda's much deplored passing away in 2007 prevented the speedy publication of this volume that assembles papers from a 2001 conference at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress in San Marino, whose driving force Ausenda was. The eighth and last in a series of volumes dedicated to the examination of the peoples settling in the post-Roman world is a highly entertaining collection and a worthy reflection of Ausenda's legacy. While all papers are valuable contributions to the field of Langobard history and culture by themselves, I cannot help agreeing with the reviewer of an earlier volume of the series that it is the decision to transcribe the discussions of each paper in full that makes this book so fascinating. Through the discussions the papers become embedded in an atmosphere of collegiality and good spirit which is able also to deal with, at times, considerable disagreement on the interpretation of 'ethnicity'. This volume deals with the Langobards, who were latecomers to the prey that was the late Roman empire. Langobard political authority also was, perhaps, the most fragmented among the peoples of early medieval Europe. As such, Paolo Delogu argues, the Langobards were the least likely to benefit from late Roman administrative and cultural traditions. Still, following the model of 'ethnogenesis', perhaps even more fashionable a decade ago than it is today, most of the papers included here agree that the people coming to Italy in 568, calling themselves Langobards, were not an ethnically homogeneous group, and, what is more, that by the seventh century 'serious' ethnic distinction between Langobards and Romans no longer existed. The first two contributions, which examine the pre-Italian history of the Langobards from an archaeological perspective, delve into this theme of ethnicity as a fluid and flexible category straight away. While Neil
Bede, "Imperium", Britain and the Anglo-Saxons the "imperium"-weilding kings ... more Bede, "Imperium", Britain and the Anglo-Saxons the "imperium"-weilding kings of "HE", II, 5 the tribal hidage - its context and purpose regional governance and "imperium" in early England Raedwald - a pagan overking an English Empire - status and ethnicity.
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