Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum
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A01=James M. Harland
anglo-saxon
archaeological theory
archaeology
Author_James M. Harland
Category=GTM
Category=N
Category=NHD
early medieval Britain
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
ethnicity in British archaeology
historiography
material culture analysis
migration archaeology
post-structuralist theory
poststructuralism
Roman to medieval transition
social construction of ethnicity
Product details
- ISBN 9781041178927
- Weight: 580g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Dec 2025
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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For centuries, archaeologists have excavated the soils of Britain to uncover finds from the early medieval past. These finds have been used to reconstruct the alleged communities, migration patterns, and expressions of identity of coherent groups who can be regarded as ethnic 'Anglo-Saxons'. Even in the modern day, when social constructionism has been largely accepted by scholars, this paradigm still persists. This book challenges the ethnic paradigm. As the first historiographical study of approaches to ethnic identity in modern 'Anglo-Saxon' archaeology, it reveals these approaches to be incompatible with current scholarly understandings of ethnicity. Drawing upon post-structuralist approaches to self and community, it highlights the empirical difficulties the archaeology of ethnicity in early medieval Britain faces, and proposes steps toward an alternative understanding of the role played by the communities of lowland Britain, both migrants from across the North Sea and those already present, in transforming the Roman world.
James M. Harland works on the history and archaeology of the late Roman Empire and its early medieval successor states. After receiving his PhD in History from the University of York, he took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tübingen. He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Bonn.
