Appearence and tactics of early 5th century Saxons.

[Robert Vermaat]

Vortigern,
The tooth enamel studies are a bit misleading, all they show is where someone was brought up. A german couple coming to England would have isotopes thaat betrayed their continental homeland, however, their children and their granchildren would have isotopes in common with where they were brought up; that is England.
Raedwald

Hi Readweald,

No, these studies are not misleading, their use is limited, as the archaeologists who use them fully well know. But if you study a site in East Yorkshire and the only 4 buried people out of 24 studied that come from Scandinavia/Germania are a) women and children and b) they entered Britain over a 250-year period, than I say that something is missing - the warriors from the supposed invasuion. Add to that the fact that 10 of that 24 came from the West, across the Pennines, and I'd say that these folks should, at least according to the theories of the 'invasion-lovers', have been running TO the the West, not migrating from there the the East where the Saxons were supposedly invading.

Sure, I know, it's not suddenly clear what went on where and when - but this result throws a bit of a spanner in the works of those who always had a simple clear view on saxons invading and pushing the Brits west..