| Abstract: |
A complement to Myres 1969 (abstract 70/693) shows how study of the pottery of the Anglo-Saxon settlement period vindicates Bede's identification of the settlers' home territories. Admittedly Bede was influenced by the political facts of his own day, when the power-centres had emerged and the Anglians were dominant; and he did not investigate, as we must, the muddle of the settlement itself. We can observe archaeological divisions within the Anglian and Saxon regions on the Continent and in England, and we can even detect on occasion really close pottery parallels which reflect the actual North Sea migration. The picture is indeed chaotic, with Angles, Saxons, Suebi, Alemanni and others only gradually polarising through the 6th century into the later historic kingdoms. Bede in fact showed great penetration in assigning the Kentish people and their Hampshire-Isle of Wight relatives to a Jutish homeland, in spite of their adoption of an Anglian tribal name and Frankish customs. |
