Duncan Sayer

Ancient dna from skeletal material from the fifth/sixth centuries shows that the past was complex and pluralistic. Describing people then as “Anglo-Saxon” is convenient, but it can be misleading – indeed our prehistoric colleagues may suggest it is even “culture historical”. Nonetheless, “Anglo-Saxon” describes a cultural and political situation with roots in the deep past. Nether Gildas, writing in the sixth century, nor Bede in the eighth, used the term. In the ninth century Alfred the Great described his unified realm as “Anglo-Saxon”, but the use did not persist. In postReformation England, the AngloSaxon idea gained traction, and in the 19th century the Anglo-Saxon poems were translated. Importantly, people in the fifth and sixth centuries did not

think of themselves as Anglo-Saxons, because post-Roman migrants did not define themselves in biological terms. The use of early medieval symbols and mythology by the “popular right” is worrying, but scholars from the diverse fields of genetics, literature, history and archaeology describe plurality and complexity, and do not espouse misguided populist objectives.

Duncan Sayer is professor of archaeology and director of the UClan Research Centre for Field Archaeology & Forensic Taphonomy at the University of Central Lancashire