University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education

Week One

From Civilisation To Barbarism? Western Britain in the Early

Middle Ages

Tutor: Dr Kirsten Jarrett

Course resources• Course Booklet: handouts• Field Guide: resources for field trip (TBC)• Reading list• Assessment handouts

• Sesame: http://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/series/civilisation-barbarism-western-britain-early-middle-ages#

• http://kjarrett.com/britanni/

Supplementary Sources• Supplementary Reading Lists (to support home study and

coursework)• Internet Resources List (to support further learning)• Session Review Sheets (to ensure familiarity with topics)

1. What cultural characteristics might be associated with life in Western Britain after the end of Roman control in Western Britain?

2. What may have affected cultural changes in Britain during the post-Roman period?

3. What sources are available to study the West during this period, and how accurate might previous historical interpretations be?

Group discussion Preparatory course reading

review

(Booklet, p. 2)

Past Approaches: 19th century onwards• Antiquarian

• Culture Historical

‘Pots = people’

‘Celtic’ Britain and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ England

‘…on any Romano-British site the impression that constantly haunts

the archaeologist, like a bad smell or a stickiness on the fingers, is that of

an ugliness which pervades the place like a London fog’

‘The uniform and sordid ugliness of drab Romano-British daylight’

(R.G. Collingwood, 1936)

Past Approaches: later 20th – 21st century

• Antiquarian

• Post-processualism

• New Archaeology

• Culture Historical

Identity Studies

Science and systems

Who did they think they were?

‘Identity’: past and present• ‘Romanisation’

Multiple manifestations and meanings of ‘Roman’ culture• ‘Social’ identitySense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ (similarity & difference)• ‘Cultural’ identitySense of shared culture (values, belief, and material attributes)• ‘Ethnic’ identity: plural identitiesSense of common origin / shared history & often culture• Status and identity: often restricted to ‘elites’

What are the meanings of the following terms?

• ‘Dark Ages’

• ‘Migration Period’

• ‘Anglo-Saxon Period’

• ‘Later Celtic Period’

• ‘Early Christian Period’

• ‘Ultimate Roman Period’

• ‘Sub-Roman Period’

• ‘Post-Roman Period’

• ‘Brittonic Period’

• ‘Late Antiquity’

• ‘Early Medieval Period’

• ‘Early Middle Ages’

Terminology

(Worksheet 1A, p. 3)

Pre-conceptions

1. Celtic stereotypes?

3. Problems and effects of stereotypes?

2. When and why developed?

(Worksheet 1A, p. 3)

Languages of Early Medieval Western Britain

Brittonic / Brythonic (Br.) Phonetic changes (4th- 6th centuries AD)

(Written): v p t c b (m) d g (Spoken): u b d g (μ) đ g

Primitive Welsh (Pr.W) C6

Old Welsh (OW), Cumbric, Cornish C7

Primative (Pr. I) and Old Irish (OI)(Spoken): w c t qq / qu đ g

Old English (OE)

(See Handout (Week 1): Name Derivation : Booklet p. 4)

Celtic River names

Late Roman Western Britain: a brief overview

Towns and roads of Roman Britain

Late Roman Britain: Political Organisation

Bokerley Dyke, Dorset

Fragmentation in the landscape

Enclosure: rural and urban

Cranbourne Chase

Caerwent

Power in late Roman Western Britain

• Land and urban enclosure: Control of movement and expression of

ownership?• Fortification and occupation of fortified sites• ‘Military’ identity:

Buckles and brooches - insignia of auxiliary and local authority?

Occupation of military sites in ‘military’ zone?

Civitas / Provincial war-bands?

Group Exercise: insignia of auxiliary and local authority

1. 2.

3.

4.4

7.

(Worksheet 1B, p. 5)

12

3

5 6

7

5th century material culture: the ‘invisible’ generations?

• Residuality• ‘TPQ’ – terminus post quem (in simple terms:

dating to or after)• Some cultural changes commonly associated

with C5 or later began C4• Continuity of some late C4 styles into (&

perhaps beyond) C5

Problems:

Late Roman dress accessories

Type G

Ceramics in Late Roman Western Britain

Late Roman settlement changes in Western Britain

Hillfort re-use

Urban change

Transformation ofvilla occupation

Some continuity in far West

Cadbury Congresbury

Ritual and Religion

‘Unofficial’ ritual or Superstition?

Gradual Christianisation

‘State’ Religion

Uley, Glos.

Burial in Late Roman Western Britain: Traditional ‘Pagan’

Practices

• Cremation and inhumation• NS / other• ‘Aberrant’ rites: prone & decapitation• Crouched • Grave goods & costume:

ceramics & animal bones, hob-nail boots, coins, jewellery• Domestic and extra-mural cemeteries• Clustered & inter-cutting graves• Few small children

New traditions: ‘Romano-Christian’ practices?

‘Standardisation’:• Inhumation• EW• Rows• Non-intercutting• Grave linings• Shroud burials with

no grave goods• Supine extended

Sectors within extra-mural cemeteries: Christian communities?

Session Revision

• What terminology is used to describe this period? What problems are there in using some of these terms? • What pre-conceptions surround early medieval ‘Celtic’

culture?• How might the present may influence study of the past • What finds might we expect on late Roman sites in

western Britain ? • What changes occurred on later Roman western British

settlements?• How were people buried in later Roman western

Britain?