Sachgebiete

Beschreibung:

S. 271 - 279. und S. 357 - 406. Jew. mit Abb. Broschiert.

Bemerkung:

Sehr gute Exemplare; unaufgeschnitten. - 2 Teile zusammen (6 und 9). - Aus dem Nachlass von Michael Richter. Mit hs. Besitzvermerk. - RECENT study of the manner in which Britain became English has emphasised the importance of the rivers in contrast to the network of Roman roads, which appealed to the early settlers as little as the towns they seem to have destroyed. Their main objective was the arable land in the river valleys, where rich alluvial soil and abundant water supply were specially welcome after their experience of the sandy heaths of north-west Germany, the original home of the Saxons. But the small area now called Huntingdonshire was not only itself low country and largely subject to floods, but adjoined a vast area of fenland where few would be tempted to settle after striking inland from the Wash. The few Anglo-Saxon relics in the county, with all allowance made for accidental discovery and imperfect record, do indeed suggest that, in the pagan period at least, when burials were not confined to churchyards, the Nene and Great Ouse were the main attraction, and were perhaps only used as gateways to the neighbouring counties of Bedford and Northampton. So meagre is the local material that the course of events must be largely deduced from the archaeology of the surrounding area, two counties being already published in this series, and Cambridgeshire having been to a large extent dealt with by Dr. Cyril Fox. A cultural connection between the Cambridge area and Bedford (as revealed at Kempston) is insisted on by Mr. Thurlow Leeds; and his chief argument is the presence in both localities of the equal-armed brooch which is known to be native to Hanover and to date from the early years of the Anglo-Saxon conquest. Another Hanoverian type is the urn with a glass ' window,' specimens being recorded from Girton, Cambs ; Kemp-ston, Beds; and near Stamford, Lines. A clue is there given to the origin and route of the strangers from overseas who in the second half of the fifth century gained a footing in this part of the country. The occupants of the higher ground inland were known as Gyrwas, their northern section being centred at Peterborough, and the southern extending from Godmanchester, the old Roman site outside Huntingdon, to Cambridge, the Roman road known as the Via Devana giving easy communication between them.