Experts Analyzed Centuries-Old English Skeletons And Exposed A Strange Reality About Medieval Life
In the laboratories of an English university, one expert is busy analyzing thousands of medieval bones. Hidden beneath the surface, she discovers a startling secret — one that could turn history as we know it on its head. So what can these remains tell us about Anglo-Saxon Britain and the society that thrived before the Vikings arrived?
The Anglo-Saxons
More than a thousand years ago, during the early medieval period, the world was a very different place. In Britain, the Anglo-Saxons had followed the Romans across the English channel, establishing a rule that would continue for six centuries. But what was it really like to live under these early kings and queens?
Medieval England
Today, our image of medieval England is populated by starving peasants and a gluttonous, lazy elite — a society grossly divided between the rich and the poor. But just how accurate is this modern perception? Thanks to the work of Sam Leggett, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Edinburgh, the truth is slowly being revealed.
New research
In April 2022 a pair of studies appeared in the Cambridge University journal Anglo-Saxon England. And in them, Leggett and her co-worker Tom Lambert challenged a number of popular perspectives on early medieval life. Now, experts are viewing the world once inhabited by kings such as Egbert and Canute in an entirely different light.
Seven kingdoms
The early medieval era, sometimes referred to as the Anglo-Saxon period, began in Britain in the 5th century, when Germanic tribes migrated west from northern Europe. Displacing the indigenous Celtic people, they raised their own villages and towns, eventually splitting the country into seven kingdoms. From Northumbria in the far north to Wessex in the south, these communities thrived for hundreds of years.
