Introduction to early Britain

1. Introduction to early Britain Anglo-Saxons

2. Before Roman times, 'Britain' was just a geographical entity and had no political meaning and no single cultural identity. Before Roman times, 'Britain' was just a geographical entity and had no political meaning and no single cultural identity. Before Roman times… 'Britain' was just a geographical entity and had no political meaning and no single • cultural identity. • The story of early Britain has traditionally been • told in terms of waves of invaders displacing • or annihilating their predecessors.

3. Archaeology suggests that this picture is fundamentally wrong. For over 10,000 years people have been moving into - and out of - Britain, sometimes in substantial numbers, yet there has always been a basic continuity of population. • The gene pool of the island has changed, but more slowly and far less completely than implied by the old 'invasion model', and the notion of large-scale • Migrations was once the key explanation for change in early Britain, this idea has been widely discredited.

4. FirstPeoples of Britain • The first 'Britons' were an ethnically mixed group. • From the arrival of the first modern humans - who were hunter-gatherers, following the retreating ice of the Ice Age northwards - to the beginning of recorded history is a period of about 100 centuries, or 400 generations. Little is known about what went on through those vast years. • It is hard even to fully answer the question, 'Who were the early peoples of Britain?', because they have left no accounts of themselves.

5. Contrary to the traditional idea that Britain originally possessed a 'Celtic' uniformity which first Roman, then Saxon and other invaders disrupted, in reality Britain has always been home to multiple peoples... • From an early stage, the constraints and opportunities of the varied environments of the islands of Britain encouraged a great regional diversity of culture.

6. It was once believed that the Romano-British were slaughtered or driven west by hordes of invading Anglo-Saxons, which were part of the great westward movement of 'barbarians’

7. However, it has become clear that Britain has always absorbed invaders and been home to multiple Peoples. How many settlers actually crossed the North Sea to Britain is disputed. • It is important to note however, that these peopleeventually • mixed with substantial surviving indigenous populations which, • in many areas, formed the majority. • As with the adoption of 'Celtic' cultural traits in the Iron Age, and then Greco-Roman civilisation, so the development of Anglo-Saxon England marks the adoption of a new politically ascendant culture, which included that of 'Germanic barbarians'.