HIDDEN KINGDOMS

About the research project

Britain ceasing to be part of the Roman Empire was one of the most formative episodes in our history, yet research on late Roman and early medieval Britain has traditionally privileged eastern ‘Anglo-Saxon England’ over the so-called western ‘Celtic fringe’

Hidden Kingdoms aims to redress this imbalance by exploring the landscape, communities, and material culture of the hidden kingdoms of South-Western Britain from the 5th to 7th centuries, while avoiding perpetuating the binary division between east and west through studying the interactions between these British regions and communities with an emerging Anglo-Saxon identity to the east.

Bookended by the end of Roman Britain in the 5th century and the absorption of much of the region by an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the 7th, Hidden Kingdoms explores how communities faced and adapted to these changes.

The core of our analysis is based on the archaeological remains of rural settlements, hillforts and cemeteries, alongside the coins and objects found by metal-detectorists and reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Together they will build a new picture of life in the South West during the transition from Roman to Early Medieval Britain.

Full details can be found on the project's website including any updates as research continues.

Images are all courtesy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme
Banner: Coins and objects dating from the 5th to 7th centuries found in South West England, all recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme
Top right: Gold Byzantine semissis of Justin II (565-78) found at Kelston, Bath & NE Somerset
Bottom right: Anglo-Saxon harness mount found at Yatton, Somerset