Hopes, Fears and Eating Cake: Brexit in the fifth century?
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 02/05/2019

One of the most enduring legacies of nineteenth century historical scholarship is the linear narrative that drives almost all historical thinking – familiar as the popular ‘Timeline’ that explains what happened and when. Key personalities and events populate history and compartmentalise time into different periods and themes (attracting specialists whose expertise does not necessarily extend beyond their particular box). The unfortunate fifth century, a ‘dark age’ of myths and legends, falls between Roman Britain and the early Medieval period and, traditionally, has been seen as the end of the former and the beginning of the latter. If we abandon, however, the primacy of the linear historical account, the fifth century does not have to be only an End or a Beginning and can ‘exist’ in its own right. Archaeologists study real people, their societies and cultures, so the absence of historical events in the fifth century should not be a problem for archaeologists. In reality, the fifth century is seen as largely devoid of evidence for occupation or material culture, but is this a consequence of how archaeological thinking has been bound to a particular linear narrative rather than contemporary social and cultural realities?   

 Peter Guest (Cardiff University)