{"title":"Words and Swords: People and Power along the Solent in the 5th Century","authors":"J. Hawkins","doi":"10.1163/9789004421899_005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The years between the withdrawal from Britain of Roman Imperial power and the establishment of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms have long provoked interest among historians and archaeologists as to what was actually happening. One reason for this perennial fascination must be the lack of evidence, which allows theories to develop: none of the (few) written sources is impartial, and any concrete archaeological evidence will suggest an historical belief according to the believer. As David Mattingly puts it succinctly, “The ending of Roman Britain is a subject of few facts and many theories.”1 When we develop a theory, we bring our own prior knowledge and interests, hoping to add just that little bit extra to what has been proposed before. And thus it is here. Where written sources, archaeology or landscape offer little to work on, place-names may provide evidence, by indicating who first used the elements in those place-names and passed them on in the names which survive even to the present day. However, even place-names can become traps for the unwary.2 No contextual evidence should be ignored. Just as it has been stressed that context and local factors were, and are, important where names are first used, it is also important to consider why names survive. The history of an area will help to discover reasons for name survival: likewise name survival will contribute to what is known of the area’s history. Thus here, not only place-names, but also history and archaeology too take their place in understanding what was happening in the Solent area in the pre-Roman and Roman times, and during the events of the 5th and 6th centuries. The Solent appears to have been a waterway of ancient and continued importance, and the people who lived on its shores to have been people of some standing. Coastal change would have affected trade and lifestyle as the years progressed. In the area here under consideration, i.e. the Solent coast between Southampton Water and Bognor, together with the north coast of the Isle of Wight, geological and landscape","PeriodicalId":178994,"journal":{"name":"The Land of the English Kin","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Land of the English Kin","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004421899_005","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The years between the withdrawal from Britain of Roman Imperial power and the establishment of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms have long provoked interest among historians and archaeologists as to what was actually happening. One reason for this perennial fascination must be the lack of evidence, which allows theories to develop: none of the (few) written sources is impartial, and any concrete archaeological evidence will suggest an historical belief according to the believer. As David Mattingly puts it succinctly, “The ending of Roman Britain is a subject of few facts and many theories.”1 When we develop a theory, we bring our own prior knowledge and interests, hoping to add just that little bit extra to what has been proposed before. And thus it is here. Where written sources, archaeology or landscape offer little to work on, place-names may provide evidence, by indicating who first used the elements in those place-names and passed them on in the names which survive even to the present day. However, even place-names can become traps for the unwary.2 No contextual evidence should be ignored. Just as it has been stressed that context and local factors were, and are, important where names are first used, it is also important to consider why names survive. The history of an area will help to discover reasons for name survival: likewise name survival will contribute to what is known of the area’s history. Thus here, not only place-names, but also history and archaeology too take their place in understanding what was happening in the Solent area in the pre-Roman and Roman times, and during the events of the 5th and 6th centuries. The Solent appears to have been a waterway of ancient and continued importance, and the people who lived on its shores to have been people of some standing. Coastal change would have affected trade and lifestyle as the years progressed. In the area here under consideration, i.e. the Solent coast between Southampton Water and Bognor, together with the north coast of the Isle of Wight, geological and landscape