The English and the Celts - no genocide?

[authun]

I had thought that the North did have noticeable Roman imports - the deposits in Illerup Adal showing Roman manufactures, as well as other bog sites.

Hi Felix,

It's a different period and a different type of trade. The 2nd and 3rd cents do show trade contacts with the roman world, but this is trading across the limes in northern europe. It's a very different situation to the 6th cent where amphorae from asia minor filled with oil and wine is shipped to Tintagel in Cornwall for example.

do we know that this disease really was bubonic plague?

The concensus is that it was. The main source for this is Procopius' detailed description:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/5 ... lague.html

It's the Black Death which is a mix of bubonic, pneumonic, and septicaemic plague, although bubonic was most common.

Were the Angles and Saxons really isolated from their Continental brethren?

No, the Anglo Saxons traded extensively with germanic speaking areas on the continent, pottery from the Rhineland and quern stones from southern germany for example. However, these areas were also unaffected. It's the lack of evidence for trade between the Anglo Saxons and Britons which may explain why the plague did not enter the germanic speaking world.


best

Harry Amphlett