How did Roman Britain end? This new study draws on fresh archaeological discoveries to argue that the end of Roman Britain was not the product of either a violent cataclysm or an economic collapse. Instead, the structure of late antique society, based on the civilian ideology of paideia, was forced to change by the disappearance of the Roman state. By the fifth century elite power had shifted to the warband and the edges of their swords. In this book Dr Gerrard describes and explains that process of transformation and explores the role of the 'Anglo-Saxons' in this time of change. This profound ideological shift returned Britain to a series of 'small worlds', the existence of which had been hidden by the globalizing structures of Roman imperialism. Highly illustrated, the book includes two appendices, which detail Roman cemetery sites and weapon trauma, and pottery assemblages from the period.

How did Roman Britain end? This new study draws on fresh archaeological discoveries to argue that the end of Roman Britain was not the product of either a violent cataclysm or an economic collapse. Instead, the structure of late antique society, based on the civilian ideology of paideia, was forced to change by the disappearance of the Roman state. By the fifth century elite power had shifted to the warband and the edges of their swords. In this book Dr Gerrard describes and explains that process of transformation and explores the role of the 'Anglo-Saxons' in this time of change. This profound ideological shift returned Britain to a series of 'small worlds', the existence of which had been hidden by the globalizing structures of Roman imperialism. Highly illustrated, the book includes two appendices, which detail Roman cemetery sites and weapon trauma, and pottery assemblages from the period.

Thirteen papers, from a conference held in York in 2003, examine the fate of Roman Britain, the nature of the Saxon immigration and the independence of western Britain in the face of refugees from the east. Drawing on archaeological and material evidence, the papers discuss: the existence or otherwise of the Dark Ages'; portable art as evidence of people remaining Roman; coast and countryside in the south west; palaeoenvironmental evidence for changes in the southwest; South Cadbury; the transformation of Roman estates; pottery and the 5th century in southwest Britain; artefacts in early medieval graves; Poundbury; a comparison between religious heresy and political dissent in Britain and Syria; Hadrian's Wall in the 4th century and after. Contributors: Neil Faulkmer, Martin Henig, Sam Turner, Ralph Fyfe, Stephen Rippon, John Davey, Simon Draper, James Gerrard, David Petts, Howard Williams, Christopher Sparey-Green, Daniel Hull, Rob Collins . Foreword by Philip Rahtz.