No Saxon invasion?

[authun]

Bryan Ward- Perkins points out this absence of evidence as evidence in its own right for the economic collapse of Britain in the 5th century- where the country went from 4th century cow-byres with tiles to the entire absence of wheel-thrown pottery in the late 5th century. Building becomes organic- and much harder to spot,

That there was both and economic and social collapse is accepted by many, but not all, researchers. The question is, what evidence is there for the survival of British communities?

The mass invasion hypothesis posits a view based on absence of evidence is evidence of absence. Britons were expelled, enslaved or killed off. However, several types of evidence suggest that this didn't happen on the scale suggested by the size of the hole in the archaeological record.

As you suggest, a return to the use of perishable materials, wooden hair pins, vessels made of leather etc. would make such evidence harder to find. Housing however was constructed out of perishable materials before the roman period and they are still found. It might be an that post roman British structures were very lightweight and more easily perishable than the more heavily constructed LPRIA structures, wickerwork walls, ligher roofs which did not require substantial posts etc.

A third possibility is that Britons survived but that their evidence is not yet recognised. My point about charred hazelnuts from the mesolithic was that we knew where to look for them because we found the flint objects first, mostly knappings, in an area where there is no natural flint. The knappings showed that men had been in the area and, if men had been there, they must have left traces. Had we not found the flint, no one would have looked for hearths and the hazelnuts would not have been found.

We don't have evidence for their lightweight shelters, that's long gone, but people leave traces of some sort. Where are the bones of the animals consumed by Britons in the post roman period? Where are their fields if they grew crops? Where are their quernstones for grinding the corn?

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