Archaeologies and histories of the fens of eastern England, continue to suggest, explicitly or by implication, that the early medieval fenland was dominated by the activities of north-west European colonists in a largely empty landscape. Using existing and new evidence and arguments, this new interdisciplinary history of the Anglo-Saxon fenland offers another interpretation. The fen islands and the silt fens show a degree of occupation unexpected a few decades ago. Dense Romano-British settlement appears to have been followed by consistent early medieval occupation on every island in the peat fens and across the silt fens, despite the impact of climatic change. The inhabitants of the region were organised within territorial groups in a complicated, almost certainly dynamic, hierarchy of subordinate and dominant polities, principalities and kingdoms. Their prosperous livelihoods were based on careful collective control, exploitation and management of the vast natural water-meadows on which their herds of cattle grazed. This was a society whose origins could be found in prehistoric Britain, and which had evolved through the period of Roman control and into the post-imperial decades and centuries that followed. The rich and complex history of the development of the region shows, it is argued, a traditional social order evolving, adapting and innovating in response to changing times.
These tales – some reinterpreted and retold over the centuries, others carelessly forgotten over time – are ones of endurance, adaptation and vulnerability, and they all reveal a generation of young people who bravely navigated a ...
This book critically evaluates the prevailing idea that north-west European migration was central to the transformation from post-Roman to 'Anglo-Saxon' society in Britain, and explores the increasing evidence for more evolutionary change.
This 1940 book, together with its companion volume, constitutes an attempt to outline the changing conditions of a fascinating region.
Today the major outfall of the fenland rivers is at King's Lynn through which flow the waters of the Great Ouse ... The names of several Anglo - Saxon fenland peoples are preserved in a document known as the Tribal Hidage and in some ...
Excavations in Hamwic have revealed evidence for occupation extending over 47 hectares, with an arrangement of metalled roads on a grid pattern, established c.700, that appear to have been well-maintained, suggesting a central ...
Waterways delimited properties as well as the possibilities for commerce, and they shaped understandings of the underworld and the world to come.' Caroline Goodson, The English Historical Review
It was made even more attractive because the decoy man had thrown feed out into the lake and there was also a welcoming group of tame ducks. It must have seemed like heaven to any unsuspecting visiting birds. From the air, a duck decoy ...
A study of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman canals and waterways, this book is based on evidence surrounding the nature of water transport in the period.
Ceramic chronology for Anglo-Saxon and early medieval Ipswich Period Dates Pottery Early Middle Saxon 600–700 CE Handmade pottery Middle Saxon 700–850/880 CE Ipswich Ware and continental imports Early Late Saxon 850/880–900 CE Thetford ...
Rome had a greater salience in Wales compared to Ireland , mainly because the Roman occupation of Britain had left its legacy in many parts of Wales , especially in the Roman settlements at Caerleon in the south and Caernarfon in the ...