Sunday 16 February 2014

Ancient graves hint at cultural shift to Anglo-Saxon Britain

Anglo-Saxon burial site, Oxfordshire. Credit: Oxford Archaeology

Human remains dug up from an ancient grave in Oxfordshire add to a growing body of evidence that Britain's fifth-century transition from Roman to Anglo-Saxon was cultural rather than bloody.
The traditional historical narrative is one of brutal conquest, with invaders from the North wiping out and replacing the pre-existing population.
But a new study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, hints at a more peaceful process. Dr Andrew Millard, from Durham University, is one of the study's authors.
'The main controversy over the years has centred on how many Anglo-Saxons came across the North Sea,' he says.
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