Wasperton : a Roman, British and Anglo-Saxon community in central England / Martin Carver, Catherine Hills & Jonathan Scheschkewitz ; with contributions by Christopher Bronk Ramsey ... [and others] ; edited by Martin Carver.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Carver, M. O. H.

Hills, Catherine, 1947-

Scheschkewitz, Jonathan.

Series:

Anglo-Saxon studies ; 11.

Anglo-Saxon studies ; 11

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Excavations (Archaeology)--England--Wasperton.

Excavations (Archaeology).

Wasperton (England)--Antiquities.

Wasperton (England).

Great Britain--History--Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066.

Great Britain.

History.

England--Wasperton.

Physical Description:

x, 372 pages, 2 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps, plans ; 29 cm.

Place of Publication:

Woodbridge, UK ; Rochester, NY : Boydell Press, 2009.

Summary:

For decades scholars have puzzled over the true story of settlement in Britain between the fifth and eight centuries. Did the Romans leave? Did the Anglo-Saxons invade? What happened to the British? New light on these questions comes unexpectedly from Wasperton, a small village on the Warwickshire Avon, where archaeologists had the good fortune to excavate a complete cemetery and its prehistoric setting. The community reused an old Romano-British agricultural enclosure, and built burial mounds beside it. There was a score of cremations in Anglo-Saxon pots; but there were also unfurnished graves lined with stones and planks in the manner of western Britain. In a pioneering analysis, including radiocarbon and stable isotopes, the authors of this book have put this variety of burial practice into a credible sequence, and built up a picture of life at the time. Here there were people who were culturally Roman, British and Anglo-Saxon, pagan and Christian in continuous use of the same graveyard and drawing on a common inheritance. Here we can see the beginnings of England and the people who made it happen - not the kings, warriors and preachers, but the ordinary folk obliged to make their own choices: choices about what nation to build and which religion to follow. MARTIN CARVER is Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the University of York; Dr CATHERINE HILLS is Senior Lecturer in Anglo-Saxon Archaeology at the University of Cambridge; Dr JONATHAN SCHESCHKEWITZ is Officer with the Ancient Monuments authority of Stuttgart.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [362]-268) and index.

ISBN:

9781843834274

1843834278

OCLC:

271774026