Statue of Alfred the Great in Wantage Market Square by Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg dates from the 1880s (courtesy Steve Daniels / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
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Early Medieval Box
Many people like to think of themselves as English with a common ancestry dating back to the Anglo-Saxons. Much of this history is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the writings of monks, such as the British clerk Gildas.[1] However, new archaeological and genetic findings conflict sharply with this evidence. A reconsideration of the documentary sources indicates that they need to be treated with great caution, perhaps owing much to myths of origin and clerical sermonising, rather than reality. This has shaped a completely different story not just of the Saxon period but the whole 650 years of our early medieval history. As one recent historian said: The apparent clarity, cohesiveness and implied cultural identity of the phrase “Anglo-Saxon” is a chimera that shimmers into invisibility as one approaches it.[2] We do not have any evidence of occupation in Box in this period, apart from a single sherd of late Saxon pottery from the Roman villa site. As a result there have been few attempts to write the history of Saxon and Viking Box. To discover more about the village in this period, we need to use evidence from surrounding areas, the organisation of our landscape, and local place-names with Anglo-Saxon origins, including Hazelbury, Ashley, Henley and Ditteridge. |
Article and Issue, Authors Alan Payne and Jonathan Parkhouse
The series is published in approximately chronological order from AD 350 to 1066
The series is published in approximately chronological order from AD 350 to 1066
Late Antiquity, AD 350-600
1. Britain in Late Antiquity, 31
2. Box After AD 350, 31
3. Why do we Speak English?, 31
4. Anglo-Saxon Art, Craft and Literature, 31
1. Britain in Late Antiquity, 31
2. Box After AD 350, 31
3. Why do we Speak English?, 31
4. Anglo-Saxon Art, Craft and Literature, 31
Reference
[1] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written perhaps about AD 880, several centuries after the events it purports to describe
The reliability of the early periods in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has been questioned as fabricated and the writings of Gildas interpreted as sermonising.
[2] Susan Oosterhuizen, The emergence of the English, 2019, Leeds: Arc Humanities Press
[1] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written perhaps about AD 880, several centuries after the events it purports to describe
The reliability of the early periods in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has been questioned as fabricated and the writings of Gildas interpreted as sermonising.
[2] Susan Oosterhuizen, The emergence of the English, 2019, Leeds: Arc Humanities Press