Dr Vaidehi Nathan
Britain Begins, Barry Cunliffe, Oxford University Press, Pp 553(HB), £30
THE origin of anything is almost always shrouded in mystery. And this gives rise to myth. Scholars world over have spent enormous time working backward to reach the beginning. Barry Cunliffe’s Britain Begins is one such quest to unravel the origins of that country.
According to Cunliffe there are three distinct traditions associated with the origins of Britain. The first, the Roman tradition begins with Aeneas a Trojan hero and said to be founder of ancient Rome fleeing from Troy. Britto, the grandson of Aeneas, accidentally killed his father and was driven away from Italy. He came to Britain, after spending time in Gaul and the country was named after him. The second tradition says it all began with Alanus was the first man to enter Europe and had twelve sons and each of them founded one European state. One of them was Britto and hence called Britain. The third story also revolves around these ancient Greek myths.
“Around 1135 AD a cleric living in Oxford published a complete history of the British ruling dynasty from Brutus, the grandson of Aeneas, to Cadwallader, the last historically attested British king who abandoned Britain to the Saxons in the seventh century. The cleric was Geoffrey of Monmouth and his book, Historia Regnum Britanniae (translated as History of the Kings of Britain). The book was packed with stories which had never before been heard. Geoffrey said he had learnt all this from a certain ancient book given to him by his friend Walter, the archdeacon of Oxford. Cunliffe adds that there is no trace of the book, either physically or as a source used by others.
Cunliffe goes into the details of several sources that discuss the origin of Britain. Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus classified the British people as coming from different races. The red-haired, long-limbed Caledonians were of German origin while the swarthy faces and curly hair of the Silures in south Wales claimed ancestry to Spain etc. This Cunliffe says is based on the age-old practice of race recognition. These variations are true of all population, he says. Hence it is difficult to justify such weeping claims.
Britain, Cunliffe says has had settlements since 10,000-4,200 BC. Quoting geological studies he describes how the gradual settling in happened. Later, “In four brief centuries, 4200-3800 BC, the landscape of Britian and Ireland was transformed by the arrival and spread of new practices and behaviours that together make up what may be called the Neolithic package. The transformations were fundamental and irreversible and set in motion dynamics of change that are still being played out today.”
Cunliffe discusses the developments over the centuries, the languages that were in vogue, the ‘Age of Warriors (1500-800 BC) and the emergence of a new society. “Two centuries or so around the middle of the first millennium saw the crystallization of regional cultures across the face of Britain, a process that was to create the structure that framed the next thousand years of development.” He then mentions religion. Julius Caeser, writing of the Gaulish gods, implies that there were many, all with different powers that could be broadly correlated with the gods of the Roman pantheon. Durids is one of the religions mentioned. Christianity came much, much later.
Like most other nations, Britain too is a story of human migrations and along with it the social, anthropological changes. For every human being his race’s origin seems the most unique. It is. And hence the story of Britain is also unique and Cunliffe has made the reading engrossing—one does not fumble upon jargons—and is authentic. It would be, for, Barry Cunliffe is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He has excavated widely in Britain. Students of history could draw a lot from the book while a lay person can marvel at the similarities of myths of origin, across continents. The book is richly illustrated, adding tremendous value to the narration.
(Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP)
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