Going native, becoming German: Isotopes and identities in late Roman and early medieval England

Going native, becoming German: Isotopes and identities in late Roman and early medieval England

Moreland, John (Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield)

Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies (2010) 1, 142–149.

Abstract

Perhaps not surprisingly in a world menaced by climate change, catastrophic explanations for the origins of the English have re-emerged. However, analyses of the biological make-up of those who were there in the fifth and sixth centuries reveals the persistence of choice, knowledge and adaptability as key characteristics of humanity.

Explanations for the end of the Roman empire have tended toward the catastrophic – especially when considering the fate of the province of Britannia. In traditional accounts, the depopulated and reforested landscape (in a return to Nature) was overrun in the mass-migrations that characterized the Age, and the remnant population put to flight or to the sword in a devastating mixture of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The result was the creation of a tabula rasa on which the English could begin their teleological journey to Empire.