FROM THE DEATH OF EAGLES TO THE COMING OF WOLVES: THE CREATION OF POST-ROMAN BRITAIN 400-600 C.E. A University Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, East Bay In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in History By Bryan Doherty May 2020 Copyright @ 2020 by Bryan Doherty ii Abstract This Research explores the transition from post-Roman British to Anglo-Saxon as the dominant culture of England took place between the fifth and seventh centuries by utilizing the disciplines of history and archaeology. Studying cultures without a written tradition or limited primary sources such as the two studied in this research, results in a great limitation of evidence. Without any direct written records to assist them or only very few, historians turn to ethnohistorical methods, requiring them to filter through culture biases and issues of intended audience, genre, and intent of the text to find clues as to the nature of certain historical events and cultural aspects of interest. Archaeology supplies a great wealth of knowledge as to related material culture but suffers due to the disconnection between archaeological and historical scholarly literature. What has been revealed through research combining these two disciplines is a long-standing narrative of the British peoples not having agency in their own history. The narrative of both disciplines until the 2000’s, was that Britain was conquered and occupied by Rome, and then quickly fell into chaos after Rome’s exodus in the early fifth century. It was then quickly conquered by Anglo-Saxons by the beginning of the sixth century as most of the material culture dated to the sixth century was classified as Anglo- Saxon. Recent Archaeological research, however, namely that of Francis Pryor, James Gerrad, and Stuart Laycock suggest a counter narrative; one in which the British peoples had a direct and dramatic influence on the changes in Britain of the late fourth to sixth centuries. This narrative has been formed by challenging three major elements of the narrative conquest: Pryor argues that elements of British culture survived and thrived in iii the late days of the Roman occupation and returned in many ways to a pre-Roman Britain after the Roman exodus. Gerrad challenges the notion of an economic collapse when the Roman influence in Britain collapsed and bolsters Pryor’s argument of a fiercely independent Britain after the Roman occupation in an examination of a resurgence of a pastoral and agricultural focused economy practiced in pre-Roman Britain. Laycock adds to this narrative of British agency by arguing that it was British tribal conflicts, not necessarily invading Germanic peoples that shaped Britain in the late fourth through sixth centuries. This new narrative of British agency will be investigated and combined with the argument that the transition from post-Roman British to Anglo-Saxon as the dominant culture in Britain during the Migration Era was not the result of conquest but of cultural integration and assimilation. This argument will focus on three major elements of study: The rise of British power and influence in the waning years of the Roman occupation and the formation of a fiercely independent Britain in the decades following the Roman exodus. It will be followed by an intensive investigation and challenge to the founding of Kent, which according to the invasion narrative was the first seat of power in the Anglo- Saxon conquest. Finally, a comparison of settlement patterns and land management between British and Anglo-Saxon cultures will be examined to challenge the invasion narrative on a country wide scale. iv FROM THE DEATH OF EAGLES TO THE COMING OF WOLVES: THE CREATION OF POST-ROMAN BRITAIN 400-600 C.E. By Bryan Doherty Approved: Date: Electronic Signature Available May 15, 2020 _________________________________ __________________________ Dr. Kevin Kaatz Electronic Signature Available May 15, 2020 _________________________________ __________________________ Dr. Albert Gonzalez v Acknowledgments Deep thanks to Professor Kaatz, and Professor Gonzalez for their guidance and infinite patience in the process of writing this research. I am fortunate to have you has my advisor and reader respectively as well as great mentors! Deep thanks to Kevin Beckham for his aid in research and all his hard, unseen work on this research project! To Chelsea, without her infinite patience and support through this process, I would have not completed! Thank you all so much, without all of you this would have not been possible! vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………..............vi List of Figures…………………………………………………………………...............viii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..ix List of Maps…………………………………………….....................................................x Chapter One: Giving up the Ghost of Rome……………...................................................1 The Last of Rome………………………………………………...............11 Britain After Rome………………………………………………………20 Chapter Two: Much Ado About Kent…………………………………………………...34 The Kentish Narrative…………………………………….......................34 Players on the Stage of History: Vortigern, Hengest and the Narrative of Kent………………………………………………………...41 Conclusions……………………………………………………………...55 Chapter Three: Conquest or Cultural Assimilation……………………………………...57 Conquest: The Narrative Against the Evidence………………….............57 Settlement: Invasive Expansion or Assimilation………………………...72 Similarities in Landscape Management: Ties in Agricultural and Pastoral Practices………………………………90 Conclusions………………………………………………………............96 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..98 vii List of Figures Figure 1: Graph of late Roman economy………………………………………………...18 Figure 2: Recreation of Roman Plumbata…………………………………......................31 Figure 3: Comparison of Quiot brooch and buckle types…………………......................32 Figure 4: Pillar of Eliseg…………………………………………………………………42 Figure 5: Thumb damage on skeleton from battle of Chester…………….......................65 Figure 6: Depressions on the skull of skeleton 2………………………….......................65 Figure 7: Damage from bladed weapons to skull of skeleton 1………………………….66 Figure 8: Sunken feature buildings………………………………………………………77 Figure 9: Building C12 at Cowdery’s Down Hampshire………………….......................79 Figure 10: Drawing of the footprint of Lake Village at Glastonbury……………………83 Figure 11: Recreation of the internal wall of a Round house……………........................85 Figure 12: Drawing of two-story Round House at Thetford……………………………..87 Figure 13: Photo of the Round House at Pimperene Down……………….......................88 Figure 14: Photo of Iron Age British overhead granaries………………………………..89 viii List of Tables Table 1: Timeline of Primary sources of the Kentish Narrative…………………………36 Table 2: Table of Weapon types found in Graves………………………….....................70 ix List of Maps Map 1: Map of British tribal territories…………………………………………………..23 Map 2: Map of central tribal territories based on coin hoards…………….......................26 Map 3: Map of the locations of possible villa burnings………………………………….29 Map 4: Map of 5th century Anglo-Saxon Settlements…………………….......................49 Map 5: Map of Anglo-Saxon territories based on ethnicity………………......................62 x 1 Chapter 1: Giving Up the Ghost of Rome In order to explore the circumstances of cultural transition from Post-Roman British to Anglo-Saxon as the dominant culture from mid fifth to sixth century Britain, we must first attempt to establish a defined British culture after the Roman exodus. This is a lofty challenge as the British culture that exists after centuries of Roman occupation and cultural influence is arguably, an amalgamation of uniquely British customs and many echoes of Roman material and social culture as well. In regards to archaeology this is particularly difficult, as the ability to identify uniquely British material culture amongst Roman urban centers and cemeteries is problematic as the various British peoples living with the occupying Roman population took on many cultural elements from their occupiers and integrated it into their own. This no doubt happened with Romans as well, resulting in a complex ebb and flow of culture influence, adaptation and adoption that is very difficult to present in a defined, crystalized form. Both the historical and archaeological record may however, supply some insight into how the cultural and socio-political situation in Britain was shaped after the Roman exodus in the early fifth century. Rome had occupied Britain since the first century C.E., subduing the resistance of united British tribes led by the husband of the famous warrior Queen Boudica of the Iceni, a tribe with a territory in eastern Britain. Part of this Roman take over was the attack on the Isle of Mona, where a vast number of the British druids, a class that preserved British laws, customs and history resided. With most of the druids killed in that attack, Rome had crippled the ability of the British people to keep a hold on 2 their customs for future generations, leaving room only for Roman customs, laws and culture to permeate the British cultural consciousness. This was enforced by a strong military presence in Britain. The Notitia Dignitatum, a document detailing military deployment and stationing in Britain during the Roman occupation, details three commands in Britain: the Comes Britanniarum, an officer who seemingly had under his command a ‘field army’ of six