Author: Liam Ricketts
Ricketts, Liam, 2023 The Early Anglo-Saxon Brooch A temporal and spatial investigation of Portable Antiquities Scheme Early Anglo-Saxon brooches and how they shed light on the invasion debate, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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Up until the early twenty first century, archaeologists, historians and literary scholars had a common and almost entirely uncontested understanding of the origins of the Early AngloSaxon period; that people from cultural groups across northern Europe invaded Britain and formed a new cultural group, known as the Anglo-Saxons. This view was supported firstly by literary and linguistic evidence of the development of a new, Germanic language (English) and new literary tradition. Secondly archaeological evidence of a change in material culture supported this view. Thirdly it was supported by the historical accounts of the period left by the Anglo-Saxons themselves and those they invaded, such as Gildas’ De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (c. 500), (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (731CE), (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. However, over the last decades archaeologists have questioned this account, favouring a model of slow immigration in which people from the Continent joined existing cultural groups in Britain. This change was partly driven by the absence of known grave pits as the result of invasion conflicts and partly because developments in theoretical approaches have increasingly emphasised the fact that a change in material culture might simply reflect a change in trade patterns and should not be confused with cultural identity. Early twenty first century aDNA (ancient DNA) and isotopic studies also seemed to suggest that there was not a significant change in the genetic makeup of the population of Britain at the time. In the last, three years however, the slow immigration model has been challenged by new aDNA and isotopic studies. While this challenge still supports elements of slower immigration model, it moves away from entirely removing the idea of a large-scale invasion. This thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion of this issue by considering an under-investigated body of evidence, Anglo-Saxon brooches from Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) data. Because Anglo-Saxon brooch types correspond to types associated with specific Continental cultural groups, their regional distribution may indicate ‘cultural zones’ if it is supported by other types of evidence. This research will primarily focus on the spatial and temporal disposition and frequency of brooches from the early Anglo-Saxon period (410-600 CE) to investigate their significance in relation to the invasion debate. The PAS brooches have been divided into two data sets (410-500 CE and 500-600 CE) for the purpose of comparison against each other. This allows for the tracking the changes of spatial distribution during the early and late Early iii Anglo-Saxon period. The analysis conducted for this these found that these brooches broadly fit typologically within their expected geographical areas, supporting an idea of cultural zones and a culturally divided migration. The data also shows a majority of Anglianassociated brooches (as opposed to Saxon or Jutish-associated brooches) in the earlier dataset (410-500 CE) that become less common (while remaining a majority) in the later (500-600 CE) dataset. PAS data has been used exclusively, and while this is a limitation of the study, the data does encompasses the whole study area rather than being limited to areas in which professional archaeological excavations have taken place. The author of this work suggests that the pattern of brooch distribution seen within this data could be explained by a migration model characterised by multiple waves of migration, with earlier waves dominated by Angles, it also sides against models of a wholly smaller migration, while supporting newer models (Gretzinger et al 2022 and Leggett et al 2022) generally larger scale regionally complex migration.
Keywords: Anglo-Saxon, Brooch, Invasion debate
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2023
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Erin Sebo