8The isotope evidence we have suggests that people
moved throughout Britain during the fifth and sixth
centuries. But even more important is the fact that this
evidence suggests that the arrival of the Saxons was not
a mass migration of male warriors. Rather, women and
children also moved to Britain at this time and
continued to do so for many generations. When people
arrived from the continent, they created new
communities or moved into older ones, living alongside
their new neighbors. They then passed their culture,
traditions, and burial practices to their children and
grandchildren.Rethinking!
If we think about fifth-century migration within and
into Britain as a steady trickle of people, rather than a
sudden flood, we must reconsider the changes in
material culture that we see in archaeological
excavations. Whether a person was buried with
Anglo-Saxon artifacts or with a new rite, such as
cremation, might not have been determined by where
they were born or raised. Rather, burial practices had
more to do with the ideas and traditions of local
families and communities, regardless of whether they
were made up of natives, or newcomers, or both.Janet Kay studies the history of Britain in the fifth century by using
archaeology. She is a postdoctoral fellow in the Princeton Society of Fellows.Periodic Table. These isotopes are
deposited in our teeth and bones
from our diet. This happens
because the isotopes drain from
the rocks, minerals, land forms,
and life forms and become part
of our water supply. For example,
we can study carbon (C on the
Periodic Table) and nitrogen (N)
isotopes to learn about what
kinds of protein people ate and
whether that protein came from
land animals or marine animals
or plants. Such information then
allows us to understand which resources were
available.
When we want to study the movement of people,
we can look at strontium (Sr), sulphur (S), lead (Fe),
and oxygen (O) isotopes in their teeth. These isotopes
offer a good estimate of where they grew up — at the
time when their teeth were being formed — because
we can compare the isotopes found in skeletal remains
with those available within a geographical region. The
combination of these isotope measurements tells us if
a person lived and died in the same area or moved
during his/her life.
A Look in the Graves
One of the first early-Anglo-Saxon cemeteries that
was examined using isotope study was West
Heslerton in northern England. Only some of the
people who were buried there were sampled for
isotopes. Of these, only a few had definitely grown
up in Europe, contrary to what we might have
expected! Some were from Britain, but others came
from much cooler climates, such as Scandinavia or
northern Germany. These immigrants were not
buried with “Anglo-Saxon” ornaments. In addition,
they had fewer grave goods than others studied in
the cemetery. Many of the people buried with
“Anglo-Saxon” objects were, in fact, locals!
The Periodic Table is a chart used in chemistry that shows all the chemical
elements in order of their atomic number. It is arranged in rows and columns
so that elements with similar properties are in the same column.