‘DNA and the Middle Ages: Genetics, History and Archaeology’
The Beehive, Newcastle
University
22 October 2004
Organiser: Dr Scott Ashley, School of Historical Studies
Contacts | Programme | Registration | Getting here
Heinrich Härke (Dept of Archaeology, University of Reading)
Title: Archaeology, DNA and early medieval migrations: What do we want to know?
Abstract: Migrations have had a bad press in British early medieval scholarship over the last one and a half decades. Changing perspectives and intellectual fashions have led to a downsizing of post-Roman migrations to 'elite transfers', and to the virtual disappearance of the term Migration Period from up-to-date textbooks. The numerous 're-assessments' of the migrations of this period have obscured the fact that mobility has been an essential part of human history, and that migrations offer fascinating opportunities for the study of fashionable (agency, identity) as well as traditional (origins, numbers) issues. The renewed scholarly interest in migrations in the last couple of years, partly stimulated by results of DNA analysis, is beginning to address these issues. This paper will summarize the changes in perspectives on migrations, and then suggest a number a key issues or questions on early medieval migrations which DNA studies might be able to contribute to.
