The Ruin of Roman Britain
An Archaeological Perspective

This book employs new archaeological and historical evidence to explain how and why Roman Britain became Anglo-Saxon England.

James Gerrard (Author)

9781316625682, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 September 2016

366 pages, 113 b/w illus.
24.5 x 17 x 2 cm, 0.64 kg

How did Roman Britain end? This new study draws on fresh archaeological discoveries to argue that the end of Roman Britain was not the product of either a violent cataclysm or an economic collapse. Instead, the structure of late antique society, based on the civilian ideology of paideia, was forced to change by the disappearance of the Roman state. By the fifth century elite power had shifted to the warband and the edges of their swords. In this book Dr Gerrard describes and explains that process of transformation and explores the role of the 'Anglo-Saxons' in this time of change. This profound ideological shift returned Britain to a series of 'small worlds', the existence of which had been hidden by the globalizing structures of Roman imperialism. Highly illustrated, the book includes two appendices, which detail Roman cemetery sites and weapon trauma, and pottery assemblages from the period.

1. Introduction
2. Violence and warfare
3. Economic collapse
4. Elite display in the fourth century
5. Elite display in the fifth and sixth centuries
6. Civitates, kingdoms, estates and regions
7. The ruin of Roman Britain
8. Final thoughts
Appendix A. Cemetery sites and weapon trauma
Appendix B. Pottery assemblages.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]