AU Student

Delivery Method: Online  

The period between AD 400 and 800 in Britain has been traditionally dismissed as part of ‘the Dark Ages’. The term ‘Dark Age’ refers to a lack of historical sources, rather than any intellectual decline.  

Course Description

The period between AD 400 and 800 in Britain has been traditionally dismissed as part of ‘the Dark Ages’. The term ‘Dark Age’ refers to a lack of historical sources, rather than any intellectual decline.  
 
Archaeology has helped to fill the gaps and demonstrated that, within a context of immense social and political upheaval this was a very creative period. How communities lived, buried their dead, engaged in ceremony, and organised their politics was subject to wide regional and subregional variation, with plenty of nuance beyond typical narratives of migration, warfare, and conquest.  
 
This module holistically examines developments in the settlement and burial record in a landscape context and explores major themes such as the fracturing of empire, development of early states, the nature of religious change, and the rise of towns. These themes will be explored utilising the archaeological record to illuminate the differing developmental trajectories of England and Wales between the Roman empire and the Viking era.