Myth and History: Ethnicity and Politics in the First Millennium British Isles

by Stephen J. Yeates

Our recent understanding of British history has been slowly unravelling thanks to new techniques such as DNA analysis, new archaeological data and reassessment of the literary evidence. There are considerable problems in understanding the early history of Britain; sources for the centuries from the first Roman invasion to 1000 AD are few and contradictory, the archaeological record complex and there is little collaboration or agreement between archaeologists, Roman and Anglo-Saxon historians. A common assumption concerning the development of the English language and, therefore British history, is that there was an invasion from northern Europe in the fifth century, the so-called Anglo-Saxon migration; a model based on the writings of Bede. However the Bedan model has become increasingly unsustainable and is on the verge of collapse. Myth and History offers a comprehensive re-assessment of the present scientific, historical, archaeological and language evidence, debunking the model of British history based on Bede, and showing how Roman texts can be used in conjunction with the other evidence to build an alternative picture. Stepen Yeates demonstrates that the evidence that has been used to construct the story of an Anglo-Saxon migration, with an incoming population replacing most, if not all, of the British population has been found wanting, that initial attempts to interpret literally the DNA evidence based on historical sources are problematic, and that the best DNA analysis of the British Isles fits the evidence into a broader European view which attempts to plot the movement of people across the Continent and which sees the major migration periods in Europe as occurring in the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. This DNA analysis is constant with the latest assessments based on language development, contemporary historical reports from the Roman period, and the analysis of archaeological data from the Iron Age and Roman period. He also argues that the Roman texts can be used to identify where the Late Roman provinces of Britain actually lay and this leads to important conclusions about the ethnicity and origins of the early British peoples. This book is a timely attempt to unravel myth from history, present a cogent platform for Anglo-Saxon studies and understand who the British people really are.

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Stephen James Yeates - archaeologist and historian of early Britain.

Reviews

[Thomas Ayre · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a more thorough argument, rich in with archeological, linguistical, genetic and textual evidence - what I got was a great deal of speculation.

The basis of this book cannot really be denied - that there were already Germanic peoples settled on the British Isles during the Roman Period (and likely preceding the Roman Period).

However the controversial theory posited by the writer is that maybe as much as half of the islands were heavily settled by Germanic peoples - this is based on comments by both Caesar and Tacitus both said this was so. Caesar, as we know, made only a brief foray on to the islands and Tacitus never visited them and instead relied on hear-say. (This is not diminish Tacitus as a source of information, but to say he maybe isn't the most reliable for somewhere he did not know the isles personally).

The evidence backing this controversial theory is rather thin on the ground (e.g. Iceni coin with Woden on one side and the Germanic symbolism of two men in a ship), but everything including good reason suggests that Germanic speakers were rather thin on the ground in the UK before the 6th century. The worst speculation of all is the theory that the Caledonii were a Germanic people, for which there is no evidence bar Tacitus saying so.

Overall, the theory is not currently supported by the evidence. Nevertheless it is an interesting theory for which I look forward to my own skepticism to be proven wrong!