01-02-2011, 04:13 PM
Many of these programmes are highly selective with the research evidence they use. I haven't seen the series mentioned but watched Pryor's Britain AD. It simply omitted some of the important scientific research or failed to explain fully what the research that they did use accurately.
West Heslerton is one example which usually appears in these programmes as it is an early Anglo Saxon settlement. When using isotopic evidence, it is vital that the actual immigrants are studied as the offspring of immigrants look 'local'. Furthermore, using Oxygen isotopes alone is likely to be inconclusive as the expected values from many parts of Jutland and the northern Germany are the same as many parts of England. There is no way to tell the difference. In addition, there is a variance around the expected local value but it was not known when Paul Budd did his analysis at Heslerton, how large the variance is, blurring the difference between a local and non local.
Normally, studies try to triangulate 3 types of isotopes, Oxygen, Strontium and Lead. Together with grave goods, these can give a good point of origin for the immigrant. Rarely however, has this been achieved in practice.
One multidisciplinary study which threw a great deal of light on West Heslerton was Janet Montgomery's "Continuity or colonization in Anglo-Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice, and status at West Heslerton". The abstract makes the claim: "no clear support for the exclusively male, military-elite invasion model at this site.". Many people who cite these studies only read the abstract and not the study itself and the above statement is ambiguous. Hence you get statements such as the following: "Strontium, oxygen and lead isotopes were used to show that the Early Anglo-Saxon population at West Heslerton was predominantly of British origin." Reading the actual study however, the picture looks very different:
22 out of 324 graves were examined. The first thing to do was date the graves. Two calibrations were used to give the widest spread between the upper and lower limits. The results were:
22 samples using the earliest possible phase
I (450–500 AD) 4 local 7 non local
II (500–550 AD) 5 local 3 non local
III (550–600 AD) 2 local 1 non local
The same 22 samples using the latest possible phase
II (500–550 AD) 2 local 3 non local
III (550–600 AD) 6 local 5 non local
IV (600–650 AD) 3 local 3 non local
Both show that immigrants arrived throughout a 150 year period. Using the earliest calibration, most arrived in the first phase, ie Period I. The latest calbration indicates chain migration. At this point we don't know where the non locals came from. It is also worth remembering that the ratio between immigrants and locals should normally be weighted heavily in favour of the locals. If 2 immigrants have 2 children who each go on to have 2 children etc, by the 6th generation there should be 64. If all these are buried in the same graveyard, we should have 126 graves. 2 of these 126 should look non local and the other 124 should look local, even though they are descended from the original 2 immigrants. Both dating ranges above show 50% non local which means there is a very high chance that the other 50% are descendants of immigrants.
Next, the grave goods. West Heslerton is rare amongst early migration period cemetaries in England because of the nature of its distinctive 'anglian' female dress accessories, (ie cruciform, square-headed, and small-long brooches, bucket pendants, braids, and wrist-clasps) found in the graves strongly suggest links with both Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany and Scandinavia, specifically western Norway and southern Sweden.
The three burials containing wrist-clasps among the grave assemblage (G89, G97, and G173) all fall into the nonlocal group. Hines (1984) regarded this functional sleeve fastener as the artifact most likely to indicate the presence of immigrants from Norway among burial populations.
G122, a nonlocal juvenile, is an early phase II jewellery burial and contained a mid-5th century brooch, the only equal-armed brooch found at West Heslerton. The distribution of the generic form is restricted to Norway and Sweden, and this specific type is believed to originate from a Norwegian source.
G78 and G84 (local) contained the earliest cruciform brooches (early 6th century) found at West Heslerton, as well as early 6th century Scandinavian-style small-long brooches.
All three burials containing cruciform brooches were nonlocal.
Local burials included G159 and G154, which were accompanied by a single amber bead, indicative of an early burial during this period (Haughton and Powlesland, 1999b). G139 (local) contained a scutiform pendant dating from the beginning of the 5th century. These pendants are believed to be amulets with some religious, rather than just decorative or functional, significance. As a consequence, they are considered to demonstrate the movement of ideas and beliefs, and therefore possibly people, form western Norway (Hines, 1984). This example is a type that is known from Migration Period Norway and Denmark, first appearing around the beginning of the 5th century.
The distribution of graves suggests that people were buried in family groups. The reason why Montgomery asserts that there is no evidence for a male military elite is because there are also three osteologically sexed females buried with weapons (G144, G164 and G184). Interestingly, neither G144 nor G164 were young adults and Cox refers to G144 as “elderly” (1999, 185). Both females had extensive caries, periodontal disease and severe tooth attrition, G164 had severe osteoarthritis and G144 bilateral fusion of the distal humeri and proximal ulnae, effectively immobilising both elbow joints. G98 is that of a young child, buried with a spear and a knife. There were several male weapon burials with spears and shields but only one (G74) contained a sword. G74 was buried with a rare design of pattern-welded sword, two spears, a shield and a knife. Swords are infrequent finds in Anglian cemeteries and this one was of a very unusual snake design running down the blade which has not been seen amongst the Anglo-Saxon pattern welded swords so far discovered in England.
The general picture is one of families, with moderate wealth, not high status elites, coming to and settling in, West Heslerton.
In a separate article published in Antiquity, a conference of some 50 archaeologists hosted by Rahtz concluded: "Although DP [Dominic Powlesland] stressed his own belief in continuity, it was generally seen more as one of continuity of place, with a dichotomy between ‘late Romans’ and the new settlers". The archaeologist Frances Pryor used in his Britain AD programme was of course the one dissenting voice, Dominic Powlesland.
These programmes are invariably arguing a case and are selective with the evidence they present.
best
authun
West Heslerton is one example which usually appears in these programmes as it is an early Anglo Saxon settlement. When using isotopic evidence, it is vital that the actual immigrants are studied as the offspring of immigrants look 'local'. Furthermore, using Oxygen isotopes alone is likely to be inconclusive as the expected values from many parts of Jutland and the northern Germany are the same as many parts of England. There is no way to tell the difference. In addition, there is a variance around the expected local value but it was not known when Paul Budd did his analysis at Heslerton, how large the variance is, blurring the difference between a local and non local.
Normally, studies try to triangulate 3 types of isotopes, Oxygen, Strontium and Lead. Together with grave goods, these can give a good point of origin for the immigrant. Rarely however, has this been achieved in practice.
One multidisciplinary study which threw a great deal of light on West Heslerton was Janet Montgomery's "Continuity or colonization in Anglo-Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice, and status at West Heslerton". The abstract makes the claim: "no clear support for the exclusively male, military-elite invasion model at this site.". Many people who cite these studies only read the abstract and not the study itself and the above statement is ambiguous. Hence you get statements such as the following: "Strontium, oxygen and lead isotopes were used to show that the Early Anglo-Saxon population at West Heslerton was predominantly of British origin." Reading the actual study however, the picture looks very different:
22 out of 324 graves were examined. The first thing to do was date the graves. Two calibrations were used to give the widest spread between the upper and lower limits. The results were:
22 samples using the earliest possible phase
I (450–500 AD) 4 local 7 non local
II (500–550 AD) 5 local 3 non local
III (550–600 AD) 2 local 1 non local
The same 22 samples using the latest possible phase
II (500–550 AD) 2 local 3 non local
III (550–600 AD) 6 local 5 non local
IV (600–650 AD) 3 local 3 non local
Both show that immigrants arrived throughout a 150 year period. Using the earliest calibration, most arrived in the first phase, ie Period I. The latest calbration indicates chain migration. At this point we don't know where the non locals came from. It is also worth remembering that the ratio between immigrants and locals should normally be weighted heavily in favour of the locals. If 2 immigrants have 2 children who each go on to have 2 children etc, by the 6th generation there should be 64. If all these are buried in the same graveyard, we should have 126 graves. 2 of these 126 should look non local and the other 124 should look local, even though they are descended from the original 2 immigrants. Both dating ranges above show 50% non local which means there is a very high chance that the other 50% are descendants of immigrants.
Next, the grave goods. West Heslerton is rare amongst early migration period cemetaries in England because of the nature of its distinctive 'anglian' female dress accessories, (ie cruciform, square-headed, and small-long brooches, bucket pendants, braids, and wrist-clasps) found in the graves strongly suggest links with both Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany and Scandinavia, specifically western Norway and southern Sweden.
The three burials containing wrist-clasps among the grave assemblage (G89, G97, and G173) all fall into the nonlocal group. Hines (1984) regarded this functional sleeve fastener as the artifact most likely to indicate the presence of immigrants from Norway among burial populations.
G122, a nonlocal juvenile, is an early phase II jewellery burial and contained a mid-5th century brooch, the only equal-armed brooch found at West Heslerton. The distribution of the generic form is restricted to Norway and Sweden, and this specific type is believed to originate from a Norwegian source.
G78 and G84 (local) contained the earliest cruciform brooches (early 6th century) found at West Heslerton, as well as early 6th century Scandinavian-style small-long brooches.
All three burials containing cruciform brooches were nonlocal.
Local burials included G159 and G154, which were accompanied by a single amber bead, indicative of an early burial during this period (Haughton and Powlesland, 1999b). G139 (local) contained a scutiform pendant dating from the beginning of the 5th century. These pendants are believed to be amulets with some religious, rather than just decorative or functional, significance. As a consequence, they are considered to demonstrate the movement of ideas and beliefs, and therefore possibly people, form western Norway (Hines, 1984). This example is a type that is known from Migration Period Norway and Denmark, first appearing around the beginning of the 5th century.
The distribution of graves suggests that people were buried in family groups. The reason why Montgomery asserts that there is no evidence for a male military elite is because there are also three osteologically sexed females buried with weapons (G144, G164 and G184). Interestingly, neither G144 nor G164 were young adults and Cox refers to G144 as “elderly” (1999, 185). Both females had extensive caries, periodontal disease and severe tooth attrition, G164 had severe osteoarthritis and G144 bilateral fusion of the distal humeri and proximal ulnae, effectively immobilising both elbow joints. G98 is that of a young child, buried with a spear and a knife. There were several male weapon burials with spears and shields but only one (G74) contained a sword. G74 was buried with a rare design of pattern-welded sword, two spears, a shield and a knife. Swords are infrequent finds in Anglian cemeteries and this one was of a very unusual snake design running down the blade which has not been seen amongst the Anglo-Saxon pattern welded swords so far discovered in England.
The general picture is one of families, with moderate wealth, not high status elites, coming to and settling in, West Heslerton.
In a separate article published in Antiquity, a conference of some 50 archaeologists hosted by Rahtz concluded: "Although DP [Dominic Powlesland] stressed his own belief in continuity, it was generally seen more as one of continuity of place, with a dichotomy between ‘late Romans’ and the new settlers". The archaeologist Frances Pryor used in his Britain AD programme was of course the one dissenting voice, Dominic Powlesland.
These programmes are invariably arguing a case and are selective with the evidence they present.
best
authun
Harry Amphlett
