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Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons Paperback – Illustrated, September 5, 2005

4.8 out of 5 stars 75

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Leading archaeologist Francis Pryor retells the story of King Arthur, legendary king of the Britons, tracing it back to its Bronze Age origins.

The legend of King Arthur and Camelot is one of the most enduring in Britain's history, spanning centuries and surviving invasions by Angles, Vikings and Normans. In his latest book Francis Pryor – one of Britain’s most celebrated archaeologists and author of the acclaimed ‘Britain B.C.’ and ‘Seahenge’ – traces the story of Arthur back to its ancient origins. Putting forth the compelling idea that most of the key elements of the Arthurian legends are deeply rooted in Bronze and Iron Ages (the sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake, the Sword in the Stone and so on), Pryor argues that the legends' survival mirrors a flourishing, indigenous culture that endured through the Roman occupation of Britain, and the subsequent invasions of the so-called Dark Ages.

As in ‘Britain B.C.’, Pryor roots his story in the very landscape, from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, to South Cadbury Castle in Somerset and Tintagel in Cornwall. He traces the story back to the 5th-century King Arthur and beyond, all the time testing his ideas with archaeological evidence, and showing how the story was manipulated through the ages for various historical and literary purposes, by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Malory, among others.

Delving into history, literary sources – ancient, medieval and romantic – and archaeological research, Francis Pryor creates an original, lively and illuminating account of this most British of legends.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

‘Controversial deceptively clever and a damn good read.’ BBC History Magazine

Praise for ‘Britain B.C.’:

‘Francis Pryor has given us a remarkable, imaginative and persuasive account of those other Britons…its enthusiastic and confident approach deserves to be very influential.’ TLS

‘A compulsive narrative intertwining prehistory, the excitement of discovery and personalities. It bounds along, wonderfully enlivened by Pryor’s earthy enthusiasm.’ New Scientist

Praise for ‘Seahenge’:

‘A magnificent book…a vivid story, superbly told. It gives a wonderfully clear explanation of how archaeology works, written in plain language which all can understand and enjoy.’ Magnus Magnusson

About the Author

Dr Francis Pryor has spent thirty years studying the prehistory of the Fens. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. From 1980 he turned his attention to pre-Roman religion and has excavated barrows, ‘henges’ and a large site dating to 3800 B.C. In 1987, with his wife Maisie Taylor, he set up the Fenland Archaeological Trust. He appears frequently on TV’s ‘Time Team’ and is the author of ‘Seahenge’, ‘Britain B.C.’ and ‘Britain A.D.’

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; TV Tie in Ed edition (September 5, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0007181876
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007181872
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.79 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 out of 5 stars 75

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
75 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2017
You know, it's the nature of this field that anything you write is likely one day to be wrong. It's terribly difficult to interpret from durable physical remains. And it's doubly difficult in Britain where the early "histories" were written to suit the powerful sponsors to justify various social themes, And one of the most difficult issues to pin down is the Anglo-Saxon "invasion." It certainly wasn't the violent take-over depicted by the monks who wrote the early works to invent heroic warrior ancestors for their sponsors.

But you should still read this book. Pryor does indeed expend a lot of words on how and why many of his predecessors were wrong. And anyone new to reading the popular literature of the field does need to understand that this is no different from other scientific endeavors. The academics are just as childish and pig-headed and blind to anything that doesn't suit the thesis that made their reputations as any other field. And you need to understand this when you read any of them.

I suspect he is more strident here than in his Britain BC book because prehistory is his specialty, and in this one, the historians will be outraged that he is trespassing. But when it comes to what people left behind in Britain, there are as good authorities but none better.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2022
Excellent book early British history and culture. Good and informative book. The opportunit
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2015
Pryor writes very well. He brings the subject to life in a very personal way.
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2012
Britain AD is the third volume of what Francis Pryor refers to as an "informal trilogy on the archaeology and early history of Britain." The first two are Seahenge (which at the time of writing, I have not read) and Britain BC, which I have read.

The focus of Britain AD is the so-called "Dark Ages", the period between the end of Roman rule in Britain, at the beginning of the 5th century, and the emergence of the English kingdoms (e.g. Alfred the Great) in the 8th and 9th centuries. It was during this period that King Arthur and his knights were supposedly battling to defend Romano-British civilization from the advances of the Anglo-Saxons, whose invasion of Britain from Continental Europe followed the withdrawal of the Roman legions. In fact, Pryor's main thrust is to debunk both King Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon invasion.

Pryor takes issue with what he calls the "cultural-historical" process which he says has given rise to a series of myths about Arthur and the Anglo-Saxons. The proponents of this process either ignore archaeology completely, or use it selectively to support their entrenched views of history.

While much of the Arthur mythology is know to originate from much later sources (Geoffrey of Monmouth 12th century, Thomas Mallory "Morte D'Arthur" 15th century), Pryor casts doubt on any historicity of Arthur. He believes that the growth and embellishment of the Arthur legend was due to a desire to promote a genuine English identity, as compared to the Germanic Anglo-Saxon one which had partially eclipsed it in the Dark Ages; he points out that the original Arthur was Welsh - representing the "Celtic twilight" of Romano-British civilization - until he was hijacked to England by Richard I in the late 11th century, with the staged "discovery" of his bones and an accompanying inscription in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey. Pryor suggest that a similar process, designed to emphasize the Germanic origins of the English, occurred following the installation of German royalty as English monarchs in the 18th century. At this point, he says, The Anglo-Saxon "invasion" was canonised, and Alfred the Great became the original English monarch of choice.

In presenting the counter-arguments -based on archaeology - Pryor does his usual thorough job. He points out that many of the characteristics of Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain - the types of building, "pagan" burial and cremation practices, the move away from towns - in fact pre-dated the withdrawal of the Roman legions in 410 by as much as a hundred years. Informed by his intimate knowledge of landscapes, particularly in eastern England, Pryor argues that the continuity of settlement in most locations - often from pre-Roman times through the Anglo-Saxon period - refutes the idea of the violent replacement of Britains/Celts by invading Continentals. In its place, he argues for the gradual adoption of life-styles via acculturation. Pryor maintains that the people of Britain were far more mobile than we give them credit for, and that this would account - as Roman influence waned - for the the seepage -particularly into eastern and south-eastern England - of a dominant Anglo-Saxon culture.

As someone who had unquestioningly accepted the conventional history of Anglo-Saxon invasion, I found my initial resistance gradually giving ground to the persuasiveness of Pryor's archaeological arguments. However, while I can accept that the acquisition of many Anglo-Saxon characteristics may have occurred via a process of gradual acculturation, I remain unconvinced that the Old English language - with its heavy Germanic influence - could have made its way to Britain without being carried by substantial numbers of its speakers. Some historians have advanced the idea that the Roman legions based in Britain consisted of many Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, who settled down among the ancient Brits and never left (this would also account for the appearance of Anglo-Saxon settlement characteristics before the end of the Roman period). Pryor does not accept this point of view, but it seems to me that this owes more to the strength of his conviction about "acculturation" rather than to actual evidence.

As usual, wherever you come out in relation to Pryor's point of view, the joy of reading his books is that all is transparent. He freely admits that his theories may prove to be incorrect, and shares with the reader everything he knows that has brought him to his point of view. " If archaeologists and historians care about their subject, they will have axes to grind, and I prefer to sharpen mine in public."
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Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2014
The author herein declares that "I prefer my archeology, like my friends, to be human, fallible, and hard to explain." But he himself has no doubts concerning the replacement of Roman-era people with Anglo Saxon invaders after the collapse of the Roman Empire; arguing that "it goes against common sense to believe that the [archeological] changes we are witnessing here reflect the replacement of one population by another."

Moreover, "It also patronizes the indigenous people, because it assumes that the post-Roman inhabitants of Britain would not have been capable of "inventing" England themselves." The local indigenous population deserves much more credit, he argues; that the changes in language and culture and the changes in the archaeological record of eastern and south-eastern Britain over this time was not the result of new blood, so to speak, but "are better explained by `acculturation' than migration."
"Acculturation," he adds---aided by the internet and other means, "is the process behind, for example, the coming together of Britain and the United States today." So, you see, it's all rather simple: The story of the `Anglo-Saxons' and their invasions is but a myth, according to Mr. Pryor, "an essential part of England's origin myth." And "the changes attributed to the arrival of Anglo-Saxons were usually caused by people changing their minds, rather than their places of residence."

Well, that's food for thought, certainly, and it is intellectually stimulating to contemplate such new takes on old issues, but not meaning to patronize the inhabitants on England circa the 5th & 6th centuries I nevertheless wonder how Sussex, Middlesex and Essex (to name but a few) came to become known as such; communities (which mean) `land of the southern Saxons,' `land of the middle Saxons' and `land of the East Saxons,' bereft of a significant influx of Saxons. (14Apr)
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Top reviews from other countries

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Hominid
5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and Intriguing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 11, 2021
Superb book, highly recommended.

Combining archaeology, sociology and personal insight Francis presents some very interesting views on how everyday life looked for people in the first millennium AD.

He never shies away from challenging conventional views, most notably the nature of the Saxon "invasion", which seems to have irked a few reviewers.
4 people found this helpful
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Barrie watson
5.0 out of 5 stars It's ok
Reviewed in Germany on September 2, 2019
Tolle Buch,
Atnt
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
Reviewed in France on September 20, 2012
Pour les passionnés d'histoire de l'Angleterre (anglophones bien sur). Nécessite un registre lexical assez riche et parfois spécialisé.
L'auteur est un des plus grands archéologues britanniques, mais il sait rester abordable pour les non spécialistes.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2007
No denying this subject raises a lot of questions. In the TV series by the same author a guest on the show raises the probability that King Arthur was invented to show what they would have liked to happen and this makes sense to me.
I have always thought that the 'Dark Ages' was a false term and now I can see it explained in great detail. If you like History to be told with a purpose this is for but if you if you think what you have been taught is undeniable then you should stick to the norm.

Good suff I say and I want more, lol.
3 people found this helpful
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Ivan Stafford
5.0 out of 5 stars I'm no archeologist but found this fascinating. The author ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2015
I'm no archeologist but found this fascinating. The author introduces some evidence based ideas about the development of society during the so called "Dark Ages" which it transpires aren't so dark after all, if you know where to look and how to interpret the findings. Really enjoyable read that isn't too heavy for the layman (like me).
6 people found this helpful
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