Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 26 September 2022

Genetic profiling the Anglo-Saxons - and who they were


A recent study about the genetic profile of the population of the migration age in what we term Anglo-Saxon England has confirmed a much more complicated pattern than was once thought. The debate about rupture or continuity of settlement and about the extent of the interaction of different ethnic or social groups has, it would appear, been tipped further towards a narrative of coexistence rather than one of entrenched hostility. The research is set out in an article from Phys.org which can be seen at The Anglo-Saxon migration: New insights from genetics

The article has links to four related articles on the same site. They are from 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2021 and are about what it was, or is, that makes someone Anglo-Saxon.

In order of publication the first looks at evidence from an Anglo-Saxon cemetary in Oxfordshire and can be viewed at Ancient graves hint at cultural shift to Anglo-Saxon Britain

The second is about a genome study of migration age skeletons from a Cambridgeshire cemetary excavation. It can be seen at Ancient genomes reveal that the English are one-third Anglo-Saxon

The third is a sharing of an interpretive piece from The Conversation about the population mix of the migration era and at later perceptions of the Anglo-Saxon nature of the English. It can be read at Why the idea that the English have a common Anglo-Saxon origin is a myth

Finally there is another interpretive article from an Australian research group drawing upon  the archaeological evidence and seeing a mixed population which came to be united or defined by language. It can be seen at Being Anglo-Saxon was a matter of language and culture, not genetics


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