Cultures of Post-Roman BritainRoman, British, Irish, ‘Anglo-Saxon’

HousingLanguage

Why Did They Come?

• Mineral resources• Roman luxuries• Roman plantations• Power• Agricultural land• The Huns made me do it

Cultures of Post-Roman BritainQuestions

• How can we distinguish the different cultures?• What changes are taking place. How?

– The Anglo-Saxon culture is adopted in part by most of the inhabitants of eastern England

– Anglo-Saxon groups grow in strength and become more socially differentiated.

– Regional powers develop

British houses

Anglo-SaxonPost holes ‘Hall”

Grubenhaus

Writing systems

• Roman – Latin based languages• Ogham – Celtic languages• Futhark – Germanic languages

Ogham

• Invented script, modeled on Roman• Before 400• 20 basic characters• Represents sounds of “Primitive Irish”• Later adapted to Norse, Pictish?• Primarily markers and memorial stones

Ogham ‘Alphabet’

Silchester

Two Ogham/Latin StonesNevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales

Orkney Spindle

BENDDACT ANIM LA blessing on the soul of L.

Changing Language - Scenarios

Latin loanwords in Irish• Roman period Scotti• Patrick• Gaul after Patrick• Interaction of Irish and British churches

Loanwords - ChurchLatin Old Irish Scots

Gaelic Manx English

ecclesia eclais eaglais agglish church

anima -- anam annym soul

benedictio beannacht beannachd bannaght blessing

credo -- creid credjal believe

peccatum peaca peacadh peccah sin

argentum airgiod airgead -- money

lego -- leugh lhaih read

liber -- leabhar lioar book

Anglo-Saxon to Modern English

• How do you pronounce this?

Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

Robertson, John S. “How the Germanic Futhark Came from the Roman Alphabet.” Futhark: International Journal of Runic Studies 2 (2011, publ. 2012), 7–25.

Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

Seax (knife) British Museum

Proposed Evolution of Written Language