east-lothian-1924/05-018

Transcription

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

In Ptolemy's map of the second century the coastal land from the Forth
to south of the Tweed, apparently as far as the Tees, is allotted to the people
called Otadini, a name which, as answering to the later Gaelic Fotudan, ¹ and to
the Welsh Guotodin or modern Welsh Gododdin should probably be written
Votadini. But there is no evidence of Roman operations east of the road
which crossed Soutra Hill from Newstead Camp at Melrose to Inveresk, nor
have any traces of Roman occupation been found in East Lothian. The Roman
relics from Traprain (No. 148) point only to contacts and trade.
To the Angles of the English invasions the same district was known as
Bernicia or the country of the Bernicians (Beornice, Bærnice) or at least as
part of that somewhat indefinite region. The allusion, cited below, to "nations"
of Bernicians further implies several tribes or peoples as covered by that name,
of whom the Votadini may have been only one. Bernicia was based upon the
fortress of Bamborough, while south of it, covering modern Yorkshire, was
Deira. Ida is said to have established himself at Bamborough in 547 and
Nennius ² gives him as the first king of Bernicia. In what sense he was so it
is hard to say. There is an entire lack of archæological evidence for any
Anglian settlement in Bernicia during the sixth century. At that time the
Angles were still heathen. Christianity did not enter Northumbria till 625,
and Edwin (616-633) was the first Northumbrian Christian king. Before King
Oswald set up his wooden cross at Heavenfield in 635 there was neither
church, altar nor any symbol of the Christian faith "among all the nations
of the Bernicians". ³ Some years must be allowed for the new faith to modify
pagan practice. There was even a period of lapse. Evidence of settlement
by Saxons or Angles in other parts of England begins quite soon after the
dates allotted to the different invasions. This evidence is drawn from the
numerous cemeteries of non-Christian character. In Yorkshire, i.e., the part
known as Deira, such are frequently found as secondary interments in Bronze
Age barrows, and they survive in good number along the line of the rivers
to the east. After the adoption of Christian beliefs burial took place in
churchyard enclosures. In Bernicia, however, with the exception of a cemetery
at Darlington on the Tees, such evidence is totally lacking, and it can be
said that no Anglian remains of the pagan period have so far been found
north of the Tweed. ⁴ It may be inferred that, up to the time when North-
umbria became Christian, in the first third of the seventh century, no per-
manent settlement of Angles had been made between the Tweed and the
Forth. ⁵
This, of course, does not exclude the possibility of raids or temporary
incursions. The composite work known under the name of Nennius, of which

1 Go rinn fhiadhnach Fotudain : "As far as the conspicuous promontory of Fotudan" Duan
Albanach in Chr. Picts & Scots p. 57.
2 Hist. Brit.
3 Bede III., ii.
4 One Anglo-Saxon urn in the National Museum of Antiquities is reported to have come
from Aberdeenshire, but its origin is really doubtful. Beads found in a grave at Dalmeny Park
may have been Anglian but are not necessarily such, while an isolated find of similar beads
was made in a broch in Skye. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. 1914-5 p. 332 ff. These uncertain strays
only emphasise the general blank.
5 Cf. The Archæology of the Anglo Saxon Settlements by E. Thurlow Leeds, chap. iv. "The
idea of an effective occupation of any part of Scotland in Early Anglo-Saxon times must be
at once jettisoned." p. 71.

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