Population replacement or acculturation? An archaeological perspective on population and migration in post-Roman Britain. In: H.L.C. Tristram (ed.). The Celtic Englishes III (Anglistische Forschungen, 324). Heidelberg: Winter 2003. 13-28. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Anglo-Saxon immigration and ethnogenesis. Medieval Archaeology 55, 2011. 1-28.
IT IS NOW widely accepted that the Anglo-Saxons were not just transplanted Germanic invaders and settlers from the Continent, but the outcome of insular interactions and changes. But we are still lacking explicit models that suggest how this ethnogenetic process might have worked in concrete terms. This article is an attempt to present such a model from an archaeological perspective, but with an interdisciplinary approach. The focus is on the role of the native British population and its interaction with immigrant Germanic groups. As a result, the model envisages two broad phases in the creation of the Anglo-Saxons: an ethnically divided conquest society in the 5th/6th centuries in which immigrants and their descendants practised a form of ‘apartheid’ in order to preserve their dominance; and a phase of increasing acculturation and assimilation of the natives in the 7th/8th centuries that laid the foundations of a common English identity.
Population and the Dynamics of Change in Roman South-Eastern England
in D. Bird (ed.), Agriculture and Industry in South-Eastern Roman Britain, 2017
This paper discusses the role of population dynamics in the immediate aftermath of the Roman conquest and how this may have been affected by social, political and economic change. Placing the evidence from settlement archaeology within it wider historical context, the paper hypotheses that dramatic fluctuations in the human population occurred across the Iron Age/Romano-British transition and through to the very end of Roman imperial rule. This paper is currently embargoed by the publishers. For a copy of the book, please purchase through Oxbow (see link). For a digital off-print of this paper, please contact me directly.
Britons in Anglo-Saxon England. Boydell Press; …, 2007
The archaeological near-invisibility of sub-Roman British material culture in England is one of the main obstacles for the new consensus which holds that there was substantial survival of the native population into the Anglo-Saxon period. This near-invisibility matches the scarcity of historical and linguistic evidence for Britons, and it is this coincidence of evidence which has led to the persistence of the 'ethnic cleansing' model in the first place. The logical corollaries of the idea of large-scale native survival are (1) that rapid acculturation turned these natives into Anglo-Saxons; and (2) that in the interval between the end of Roman Britain and the massive appearance of Anglo-Saxon material culture (Esmonde Cleary's 'post-crash gap'), the Britons had a material culture which (a) has not survived in the archaeological record, or (b) has survived, but is not recognized by us. Variant (a) would result from the large-scale use of organic materials; variant (b) would be the consequence of undiagnostic evidence and/or a lack of dating evidence. These possibilities are discussed using post-Roman evidence from Britain and elsewhere, and illustrated by the case of post-Soviet Russia. The latter offers a parallel case of empire collapse followed by fragmentation and rapid, dramatic culture change. The aim here is not to support any particular model of post-Roman population stability or change, but to explore the nature of post-empire culture change and its implications for the recognition and dating of different aspects of material culture.
The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool
Nature
The history of the British Isles and Ireland is characterized by multiple periods of major cultural change, including the influential transformation after the end of Roman rule, which precipitated shifts in language, settlement patterns and material culture1. The extent to which migration from continental Europe mediated these transitions is a matter of long-standing debate2–4. Here we study genome-wide ancient DNA from 460 medieval northwestern Europeans—including 278 individuals from England—alongside archaeological data, to infer contemporary population dynamics. We identify a substantial increase of continental northern European ancestry in early medieval England, which is closely related to the early medieval and present-day inhabitants of Germany and Denmark, implying large-scale substantial migration across the North Sea into Britain during the Early Middle Ages. As a result, the individuals who we analysed from eastern England derived up to 76% of their ancestry from the con...
Previous anthropological investigations at Trentholme Drive, in Roman York identified an unusual amount of cranial variation amongst the inhabitants, with some individuals suggested as having originated from the Middle East or North Africa. The current study investigates the validity of this assessment using modern anthropological methods to assess cranial variation in two groups: The Railway and Trentholme Drive. Strontium and oxygen isotope evidence derived from the dentition of 43 of these individuals was combined with the craniometric data to provide information on possible levels of migration, and the range of homelands that may be represented. The results of the craniometric analysis indicated that the majority of the York population had European origins, but that 11% of the Trentholme Drive and 12% of The Railway study samples were likely of African decent. Oxygen analysis identified four incomers, three from areas warmer than the UK, and one from a cooler or more continental climate. Although based on a relatively small sample of the overall population at York, this multidisciplinary approach made it possible to identify incomers, both men and women, from across the Empire. Evidence for possible second generation migrants was also suggested. The results confirm the presence of a heterogeneous population resident in York and highlight the diversity, rather than the uniformity, of the population in Roman Britain.
Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons
The purported migrations that have formed the peoples of Britain have been the focus of generations of scholarly controversy. However, this has not benefited from direct analyses of ancient genomes. Here we report nine ancient genomes (B1 ) of individuals from northern Britain: seven from a Roman era York cemetery, bookended by earlier Iron-Age and later Anglo-Saxon burials. Six of the Roman genomes show affinity with modern British Celtic populations, particularly Welsh, but significantly diverge from populations from Yorkshire and other eastern English samples. They also show similarity with the earlier Iron-Age genome, suggesting population continuity, but differ from the later Anglo-Saxon genome. This pattern concords with profound impact of migrations in the Anglo-Saxon period. Strikingly, one Roman skeleton shows a clear signal of exogenous origin, with affinities pointing towards the Middle East, confirming the cosmopolitan character of the Empire, even at its northernmost fringes.
Local population structure in Cambridgeshire during the Roman occupation
The Roman period saw the empire expand across Europe and the Mediterranean, including much of what is today the United Kingdom. While there is written evidence of high mobility into and out of Britain for administrators, traders and the military, the impact of imperialism on local population structure is invisible in the textual record. The extent of genetic change that occurred in Britain before the Early Medieval Period and how closely linked by genetic kinship the local populations were, remains underexplored. Here, using genome-wide data from 52 ancient individuals from Cambridgeshire, we show low levels of genetic ancestry differentiation between Romano-British sites and lower levels of runs of homozygosity over 4 centimorgans (cM than in the Bronze Age and Neolithic. We find fourteen cases of genetic relatedness within and one between sites without evidence of patrilineal dominance and one case of temporary mobility within a family unit during the Late Romano-British period. W...
The Pre-Roman Tribes of South East England: a major reappraisal
So-called historians have been trapped in an unintelligent group-think for far too long. Another of their problems is a disconnection with real life-meaning that they are seemingly unable to take eg geography or military logistics into account, thereby making their conclusions even more a matter of fantasy. This paper seeks to broaden the horizons of any of these who can cope with being evicted from their comfort zone, using SE England as a case study. It is not the last word on the matter as that will take constructive discussion involving several able people.