The Origins of the English

Debates in Archaeology

by Catherine Hills

National origins remain as important as they have ever been to our sense of identity. Accounts of the early history of the peoples of Europe, including the English, are key tools in our construction of that identity. National identity has been studied through a range of different types of evidence - historical, archaeological, linguistic and most recently genetic. This has caused problems of interdisciplinary communication. In this book Catherine Hills carefully and succinctly unravels these different perceptions and types of evidence to assess how far it is really possible to understand when and how the people living in south and east Britain became 'English'.

Genres: History, Archaeology

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Olly Colluphid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm...

This is rather a counsel of despair.

On the positive the overview and critique of the evidence and arguments is interesting.

However it suffers from dismissing ideas that get in the way as anecdotes whilst on another occasion presenting three objects as evidence. It also redefined possible immigrants before the departure of Romans as Romans and then continuity shows no immigration...

Overall worth a read because it is short.

[Riversue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good concise outline of the debate around the origins of the English. Hills draws on archaeology, genetics, and linguistics to illuminate the problem.