Archaeologists are starting to radically rethink the Roman invasion of Britain. ibid.
Pre-Roman Britain was in fact a collection of often feudal tribal kingdoms. ibid.
Britain turned its back on Rome and turned to an independent future. ibid.
With the departure of the Roman troops historians imagined the end of history, and from their empty pages we have conjured a desolate wasteland … We call this the Dark Ages. In actual fact, sophisticated societies developed in Britain in the Dark Ages. Dr Francis Pryor, Britain A.D.: King Arthur’s Britain II
If he existed at all, rose to power in these troubled years … Was Arthur invented to make up for a lack of real history? ibid.
Dark Age Britain was a time of intellectual as well as economic advance. ibid.
There is no archaeological evidence for the Anglo-Saxon invasion. Dr Francis Pryor, Britain A.D.: King Arthur’s Britain III
Sutton Hoo ... This was the grave of a very rich man. ibid.
I don’t believe there was a hole in British society. ibid.
This continuously occupied landscape; there were no gaps of occupation, no war cemeteries. ibid.
Bede, like all historians, had his own particular axe to grind ... Bede invented a new race of people, the Anglo-Saxons, who came to be known as the English. ibid.
The real people of Britain A.D. did not only survive an influx of foreign influences but actually flourished because of it. ibid.
The traditional view is that life in the Dark Ages was nasty, brutish and short. And it’s this idea that everyone lived in huts and hovels and really didn’t have much quality of life ... that’s so far from the truth. Dr Janina Ramirez, Anglo-Saxon art historian
In Sutton Hoo ... Everything they would need for the Afterlife ... This vibrant hall life. Dr Janina Ramirez
The detail and craftsmanship of each one captivated me. Over the years many archaeologists and historians have studied virtually every aspect of these Anglo-Saxon hoards ... Each one tells their own story. Dr Janina Ramirez, Treasures of the Anglo Saxons, BBC 2010
The story of the Anglo-Saxons begins at the start of the 4th century. They were not a single tribe; they were a combination of different tribes who came from what is now the Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark. Their art is full of symbols and messages that refer to Norse myth and legend. ibid.
When the Normans took over they set about remaking much of Anglo- Saxon culture into their own. However, some remnants of the old Anglo-Saxon world endure this Norman cultural onslaught. ibid.
Why did these beautifully jewelled pagan warriors come to Britain in the first place? The simple answer is there were no Roman soldiers here to stop them. ibid.
By the 5th century the Anglo-Saxons had taken over most of the Eastern half of England. ibid.
All these finds from Finglesham really give us a vivid picture of 5th-century Anglo-Saxon England. ibid.
Odin was the chief god in Norse mythology, ruler of Asgard, the location of Valhalla which is the great hall where dead warriors believed they would go to in the afterlife to feast and drink for all eternity. ibid.
In 1939 as Britain prepared for war a team of archaeologists were preparing to excavate an Anglo-Saxon burial site at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia. What they found astonished them. It was a long-boat eighteen metres from stem to stern, and inside it was full of precious artefacts, the like of which no-one had seen before. ibid.
These pieces show us just how sophisticated and international the Anglo-Saxons were. ibid.
Today the Lindisfarn gospels are considered one of the world’s greatest art works. ibid.
This is Liber Regalis, the Book of the King ... Here history, art and religion collide. Dr Janina Ramirez, Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings 1/3, BBC 2012
It’s a story of monarchy which spans six centuries from the Anglo-Saxons to the Tudors. ibid.
Canute is not remembered now as a violent conqueror. ibid.
The story told by the Beyeux Tapestry not only spelt the end of the Anglo-Saxon royal line but also caused a deep rupture in the story. ibid.
Summer 1939: a golden age of exploration and archaeology is coming to an end. It was an era that saw adventurers set out to explore the remotest corners of the globe in search of clues to unlock our ancient past. And it was during that last summer of peace as the world stood on the precipice of a war that threatened to end civilisation itself, that three extraordinary treasures were discovered, treasures that would radically change our understanding of the origins and diversity of human culture. And bring us closer to our distant past. Janina Ramirez, Raiders of the Lost Past I, BBC 2019
The discovery of an incredible Anglo-Saxon ship burial in Suffolk, dating from the early seventh century AD. The final resting place of a supremely wealthy warrior king. ibid.
The single greatest archaeological discovery ever made in England: the Sutton-Hoo hoard. ibid.
Ship burials are incredibly rare in Britain: there are only two others ever discovered at this time. ibid.
Oseberg ship, Norway, excavated 1904-1905. ibid.
Treasures of unimaginable quality emerged thick and fast. ibid.
These Saxons and Angles came together and gave us the basis of the English language. ibid.
A pair of spectacular shoulder clasps. ibid.
The miraculous story of the hoard’s survival. ibid.
This was Page One of England’s history. ibid.
The Anglo-Saxons: invading warriors who came to Britain in the wake of the Roman Empire. Julian Richards, Stories from The Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited IV: The First Anglo-Saxons, BBC 2013
Over 150,000 people die or flee their homes. Alongside murder comes the devastation of Anglo-Saxon lands ... William destroys all resistance. The British II: People Power, Sky Atlantic 2012
Divide England against itself and we’re an easy prey for the Saxons. Siege of the Saxons 1963 starring Ronald Howard & Ronald Lewis & John Laurie & Janette Scott & Mark Digham & Jerome Willis & Charles Lloyd-Pack & Francis de Wolff et al, director Nathan H Duran, Arthur
It’s a story more incredible than fiction. Buried treasure forgotten for more than a thousand years discovered by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast. The find is worth millions … ‘When I first saw the Staffordshire hoard, I think there was a real sense of wonder and fear.’ Lost Gold of the Dark Ages, historian, National Geographic 2019, historian
The largest collection of Anglo Saxon gold ever found. ibid.
The Anglo-Saxons liked to be buried with their bling. ibid.
How were they made? By hand or with a device that’s been lost to history? ibid.
That number rose to more than 4,000 pieces estimated to have come from about 700 complete objects. ibid.
Most of the people we think of as Anglo-Saxon are British people who had been integrated into an Anglo-Saxon society. Dr Neil Faulkner
The scale of the Saxon incursions: perhaps 200,000 people flooded into a native population of only about 2,000,000. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e1: A Nation State, Channel 4 2004
Bede’s history told us that Readwald ruled in East Anglia as one of several leaders in the new England. ibid.
The life of the typical Anglo-Saxon king remained nasty, brutish and short. ibid.
One of the forgotten heroes of English history, a man who operated on a European scale and dominated the England of his day. His name is Offa, king of Mercia. ibid.
Guthrum knew that for his takeover of the kingdom of Wessex to succeed he had to kill Alfred. ibid.
991: A menacing fleet approached the coast at East Anglia. Nearly a century after King Alfred’s victory over the Vikings the Norse men were back. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e2: Aengla Land
On the landward side there were the forces of the most sophisticated monarchy in western Europe … It was England’s wealth and stability that had enabled Edgar to establish the first British empire. ibid.
English art and literature flourished. ibid.