AngloSaxon Invasion Theory False?

[Guest guest]

If Anglo-Saxon Culture Was Native to Britain Perhaps Aryan Culture is

Native to India?

======================================================================

 

Teeth unravel Anglo-Saxon legacy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3514756.stm?

headline=Teeth~unravel~Anglo-Saxon~legacy

By Paul Rincon

BBC News Online science staff

 

 

 

History books say Anglo-Saxons replaced the Britons in England

New scientific research adds to growing evidence that the Anglo-

Saxons did not replace the native population in England as history

books suggest.

The data indicates at least some areas of eastern England absorbed

very few Anglo-Saxon invaders, contrary to the view in many

historical accounts.

 

Chemical analysis of human teeth from a Medieval cemetery in

Yorkshire found few individuals of continental origin.

 

Details of the work are described in the scholarly journal Antiquity.

 

There are practices that are being adopted from continental Europe.

To what extent is that a movement of people (into Britain)? Probably

not that much

 

Dr Paul Budd, University of Durham

Researchers from the University of Durham and the British Geological

Survey looked at different types of the elements strontium and oxygen

in the teeth of 24 skeletons from an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at

West Heslerton, North Yorkshire that spans the fifth to the seventh

centuries AD.

 

These types, or isotopes, of oxygen in local drinking water vary

across Europe and locally within the British Isles.

 

The differences are influenced by latitude, altitude, distance from

the sea and, to a lesser extent, mean annual temperature.

 

Invasion of ideas

 

This characteristic isotope composition gets set in people's teeth

before they are 12 years of age, and can therefore be used by

scientists to pinpoint a person's geographical origin.

 

Of the 24 individuals sampled, a possible four had oxygen isotope

values outside the range for the British Isles. Following

improvements in calibration, the group now believes only one

individual was from continental Europe.

 

The results support the view of other researchers that the

introduction of Anglo-Saxon culture and language into Britain did not

occur through large-scale replacement of native populations by

invading tribes.

 

 

The isotopic composition of teeth can pinpoint geographical origin

It seems more likely that there was a small-scale immigration from

continental Europe and that the existing British population adopted

the customs of these outsiders as their own.

 

"There are practices that are being adopted from continental Europe.

To what extent is that a movement of people (into Britain)? Probably

not that much," Dr Paul Budd of the University of Durham told BBC

News Online.

 

But the team did find evidence for migration into the area from other

parts of Britain during the period. While the isotopic composition of

Bronze Age remains from West Heslerton matched local drinking water

isotope compositions, the early Medieval group were more varied.

 

Of the 20 locals, 13 had oxygen isotope signals consistent with an

origin west of the Pennines. Dr Budd puts this down to upheaval

amongst the British population after the Romans withdrew their armies

and administrators from the country in the fifth century AD.

 

"At the end of the Roman period there was a huge collapse of a

centuries-long organisation, in government and in how the landscape

was used. The population moves off elsewhere to exploit the landscape

for agriculture."

 

The Anglo-Saxons supposedly began migrating into Britain en masse

from the fifth century. Their culture and language has long formed

the basis for English national identity.

 

Genetic support

 

The findings broadly agree with a large genetic survey of the British

Isles published in 2003. The study, led by Professor David Goldstein

of University College London, found that the genetic stamp of the

Anglo-Saxons on the British Isles was weaker than expected.

 

 

Patterns of oxygen isotopes vary greatly within UK drinking water

 

 

Enlarge Image

 

Professor Goldstein attributes less than half of the paternal input

in England to Anglo-Saxon migration.

 

"I don't think there ever was evidence for a massive population

replacement. From the genetics, it's pretty clear there was not

complete replacement on the paternal side in England," Professor

Goldstein told BBC News Online.

 

"Studies like this suggest that the number of individuals that came

over is small and even in burial sites that are Anglo-Saxon

culturally, they're actually natives."

 

However, Dr Neal Bradman, also of University College London,

suggested that, since the teeth of immigrants' descendents would take

on the isotopic composition of the local area, it was impossible to

know whether the burials were of Britons or not without conducting

genetic analysis.