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The Strategy of Anglo-Saxon Invasion
Part of:
Anglo-Saxon archaeology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
Extract
The regions of England in which the Anglo-Saxons first settled have their separate histories. In more than one of these recent archaeological discovery has brought new ideas of how the invasion took place; in the East Midlands, however, what may be called the standard interpretation of the invasion lags somewhat behind the general structure of theory which has been accepted for other areas. As offering a new approach to the study of this region no apology is proffered for the submission of fragmentary evidence which has by chance come to light, incomplete though any form of archaeological study must necessarily be in time of war. It does not, however, follow that no apology is due for the temerity with which the facts have been interpreted ; for this latter only indulgence can be claimed, in that the time and circumstance justify some hazarded interpretation which may be fortunate enough to survive until more adequate examination and digestion are possible.
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References
1 Archaeohgia, vol. 50, pt. 2, 383-406.
2 It is important at this point, though out of context, to guard against one possible source of confusion. It is impossible to be sure whether the minor ‘pure cremation’ sites in Lincolnshire represent settlements or only temporary halts where a few burials have taken place. It will be appreciated as the argument develops that the choice in this matter is free, without affecting the conclusion except as concerns the comparative chronology of the invasion. Readers who appreciate how small are the present remains from such sites as Stamford will probably be quite right in such cases to read for ‘settle ment’ (the term generally used here) some such more appropriate term as ‘encampment’.
3 Arch. Journ., XIV, 275, Lincoln Museum. For all these cemeteries and those in Norfolk references will be found in Baldwin Brown, Arts in Early England, vol. IV, pp. 793-800. It is hardly necessary to point out that the ‘purity’ evidence of these sites is negative ; it is the inability to quote evidence which is crucial.
4 C. W. Phillips, Arch. Journ., XCI, 182.
5 Arch. Journ., VI, 184.
6 ibid. XIV, 276, and XXVII, 4.
7 ibid, XX, 29.
8 ibid, XXVI, 92.
9 Assoc. Arch. Soc, XXXVIII, 313.
10 Antiquaries Journal, 1937, XVII, 424 f.
11 Lincoln County and City Museum. I am very much indebted to the Curator for the help and assistance he has, on more than one occasion, afforded me.
12 Lincoln Museum. See Myres and Collingwood, Roman Britain and the Saxon Settlements, 414 note 3, and 456 n.
13 Arch. Journ. IX, 116.
14 Norwich Castle Museum Catalogue of Antiquities, 51 f. ; Procs. Soc. of Antiquaries, Series 2, IV, 172.
15 Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial. See Baldwin Brown, op. cit.
16 Procs. Society of Antiquaries, 2nd ser., IV, 292 ; Jewitt, Grave Mounds and their Contents, 294; Norwich Castle Museum Catalogue of Antiquities, 51 f.
17 Norwich Castle Museum, ibid.
18 Arch. Journ., X, 161 ; Jewitt, op. cit. 217-8 ; Neville, Saxon Obsequies, 24-33.
19 Procs. Soc. Ant., 2nd ser., IV, 172 ; Norfolk Archaeology, XII, 100.
20 Pending the publication of details about this site, it is impossible to dogmatize. The superficial impression that it is a pure cremation cemetery is not borne out by all references. The argument is not affected either way.
21 Baldwin Brown, op. cit., IV, 793 ; Leeds, Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology, 33. Brooches with a similar history also come from Ancaster and Bastón but are obviously less important there.
* A differentiation must of course be made between the warfare of the Migration Period and the defensive tactics used by the Anglo-Saxons at the time of the Danish incursions.
22 See p. 59 below.
23 Chadwick, Origin of the English Nation, 11-12.
24 History, X, 97; Antiquaries Journal, XII, 229.
25 e.g. Fletton, Woodstone, Palmerston Road. Journ. British Arch. Assoc, N.S. LV, 343 ; Procs. Soc. Ant., IX, 90 ; Jewitt, op. cit. 286. See especially Vict. County Hist., Hunts.
26 Woolridge, in Historical Geography (ed. by Darby), 105.
27 Note Memorials of St. Guthlac, ch. 19 (ed. Birch) and in Beowulf lines II, 103 f. and 1260 f. These examples require no supplementing from the many English and Scandinavian quotations on the same theme.
28 Chadwick, op. cit. 49-50.
29 It is hardly thought necessary to detail the very different Kentish conditions which welded so different a result out of much the same material as in the east.