Thanks for the information.... Interesting stuff. All this in the hazy time of Arthur as well!
I read Sutcliffe’s series of Roman-British novels (which I think start with “Eagle of the Ninth”) during my high school years, along with Mary Stewart’s “The Crystal Cave” and sequels. It appears that Romanized Britons, which included descendants of various people from around the Roman Empire, defended themselves in some fashion, but the old tribal identities also had survived in some fashion.
Wat’s Dyke, which faces a section of so-called Offa’s Dyke, had long been believed to have been built in response to Offa’s. Not many years ago it was RC dated and found to be some centuries older, but still post-Roman. It occurred to someone that there’d never been any scientific dating for Offa’s, and the RC dating that came from that showed it, too was hundreds of years older than King Offa, but still post-Roman.
The Wansdyke ran along much of the Saxon Shore, and all the way to the Severn, and is post-Roman. In the north there was of course Hadrian’s Wall. To the east there wasn’t much, but the Romans had built the Fossdyke connecting Lincoln to the River Trent and the CaerDyke between Cambridge and York, suggesting a need at the time to support a large population.
What Happened to Britain After the Romans Left?
From a lecture series presented by Professor Philip Daileader, Ph.D.
December 1, 2017
https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/britain-after-the-romans-left/
big map from that page:
https://d3idks24kkd2lv.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/End.of_.Roman_.rule_.in_.Britain.383.410.jpg
So kinda like the current congress trying to overthrow King Trump.
