The Origins of the British: The New Prehistory of Britain by Oppenheimer Page B
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Swords of the Ballintober type were made in Ireland around 3,200 years ago and found their way to south-east England and the Seine and Loire valleys in France.
Figure 5.14c
Armorican socketed axes. Tens of thousands of these were made in Brittany and Lower Normandy. Most were buried in hoards locally, but some were exported throughout France and to southern Britain, particularly the south coast.
Figure 5.14d
Carp’s tongue swords were long with a narrow point and slotted hilt; made in western France, they are found in eastern England and along the Atlantic seaways.
Figure 5.14e
Elaborate barbecue spits and small bronze bowls, used for elite feasts, were introduced into Iberia around 3,000 years ago and spread along the Atlantic coast to eastern Britain and Ireland.
Part 3
M EN FROM THE NORTH: A NGLES , S AXONS , V IKINGS AND N ORMANS
Introduction
T HE S AXON A DVENT
[A] council was called to settle what was best and most expedient to be done, in order to repel such frequent and fatal irruptions and plunderings of the above-named nations [Picts and Scots] … Then all the councillors, together with that proud tyrant Gurthrigern [Vortigern], the British king, were so blinded, that, as a protection to their country, they sealed its doom by inviting in among them (like wolves into the sheep-fold), the fierce and impious Saxons … to repel the invasions of the northern nations … [N]othing was ever so unlucky … A multitude of whelps came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as they call them, that is, in three ships of war, with their sails wafted by the wind … Their mother-land, finding her first brood thus successful, sends forth a larger company of her wolfish offspring, which sailing over, join themselves to their bastard-born comrades … The barbarians being thus introduced as soldiers into the island, to encounter, as they falsely said, any dangers in defence of their hospitable entertainers,obtain an allowance of provisions, which, for some time being plentifully bestowed, stopped their doggish mouths. Yet they complain that their monthly supplies are not furnished in sufficient abundance, and they industriously aggravate each occasion of quarrel, saying that unless more liberality is shown them, they will break the treaty and plunder the whole island. In a short time, they follow up their threats with deeds. 1
This is our earliest British text, written around AD 540–560, describing an unwise invitation made to Saxon warriors in the previous century, and their subsequent turning on their hosts. The story, as told by Gildas, continues with further incursions, some battles won and some lost, and culminates in the domination of England by people we now call Anglo-Saxons and who gave England its name and language. Gildas, or St Gildas as the Welsh later knew him, describes an inferno of rapine, bloodshed and genocide which has formed the basis for a persisting view of the Dark Ages ethnic cleansing of the ‘Celts’ from England. Significantly, some modern authors infer a population replacement by a combination of peoples from the coastal Germanic-speaking mainland of north-west Europe, including the Saxons, the Angles, the Frisians, the Jutes and even the Franks. Despite Gildas’ nationalist agenda and endless religious ranting, this extreme view can still be regarded as an orthodox position, held as it has been by a number of historians, not to mention linguists, archaeologists and some geneticists.
Of course, there is a sceptical camp, particularly of archaeologists, who view any extravagant claims for migrations as unwise and prefer to point to the more fashionable option of elite takeover and dominance by small groups of nobles. The problem with this ‘soft option’ is the
apparently
overwhelmingbody of evidence for cultural, linguistic and genetic change after the Dark Ages, with little in the way of cultural carry-over from the
Figure 5.14c
Armorican socketed axes. Tens of thousands of these were made in Brittany and Lower Normandy. Most were buried in hoards locally, but some were exported throughout France and to southern Britain, particularly the south coast.
Figure 5.14d
Carp’s tongue swords were long with a narrow point and slotted hilt; made in western France, they are found in eastern England and along the Atlantic seaways.
Figure 5.14e
Elaborate barbecue spits and small bronze bowls, used for elite feasts, were introduced into Iberia around 3,000 years ago and spread along the Atlantic coast to eastern Britain and Ireland.
Part 3
M EN FROM THE NORTH: A NGLES , S AXONS , V IKINGS AND N ORMANS
Introduction
T HE S AXON A DVENT
[A] council was called to settle what was best and most expedient to be done, in order to repel such frequent and fatal irruptions and plunderings of the above-named nations [Picts and Scots] … Then all the councillors, together with that proud tyrant Gurthrigern [Vortigern], the British king, were so blinded, that, as a protection to their country, they sealed its doom by inviting in among them (like wolves into the sheep-fold), the fierce and impious Saxons … to repel the invasions of the northern nations … [N]othing was ever so unlucky … A multitude of whelps came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as they call them, that is, in three ships of war, with their sails wafted by the wind … Their mother-land, finding her first brood thus successful, sends forth a larger company of her wolfish offspring, which sailing over, join themselves to their bastard-born comrades … The barbarians being thus introduced as soldiers into the island, to encounter, as they falsely said, any dangers in defence of their hospitable entertainers,obtain an allowance of provisions, which, for some time being plentifully bestowed, stopped their doggish mouths. Yet they complain that their monthly supplies are not furnished in sufficient abundance, and they industriously aggravate each occasion of quarrel, saying that unless more liberality is shown them, they will break the treaty and plunder the whole island. In a short time, they follow up their threats with deeds. 1
This is our earliest British text, written around AD 540–560, describing an unwise invitation made to Saxon warriors in the previous century, and their subsequent turning on their hosts. The story, as told by Gildas, continues with further incursions, some battles won and some lost, and culminates in the domination of England by people we now call Anglo-Saxons and who gave England its name and language. Gildas, or St Gildas as the Welsh later knew him, describes an inferno of rapine, bloodshed and genocide which has formed the basis for a persisting view of the Dark Ages ethnic cleansing of the ‘Celts’ from England. Significantly, some modern authors infer a population replacement by a combination of peoples from the coastal Germanic-speaking mainland of north-west Europe, including the Saxons, the Angles, the Frisians, the Jutes and even the Franks. Despite Gildas’ nationalist agenda and endless religious ranting, this extreme view can still be regarded as an orthodox position, held as it has been by a number of historians, not to mention linguists, archaeologists and some geneticists.
Of course, there is a sceptical camp, particularly of archaeologists, who view any extravagant claims for migrations as unwise and prefer to point to the more fashionable option of elite takeover and dominance by small groups of nobles. The problem with this ‘soft option’ is the
apparently
overwhelmingbody of evidence for cultural, linguistic and genetic change after the Dark Ages, with little in the way of cultural carry-over from the
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