the Roman Empire also allowed for migration and invasion of peoples in territories further to the east, in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Slav lands. It was not until the tenth century that the linguistic and ethnic map of northern Europe settled down and began to take its modern shape.
By its very nature, migration in a largely pre-literate age is very difficult for the historian to follow. The sources of the time tend to mention leaders, but give no reliable information about followers, and at a time when communications were difficult and rumour rife even the role played by leaders may be inaccurately reported. Men of whom we know reliably no more than the name--Arthur is the best example--may have been highly important political figures having influence over large areas, or else ephemeral leaders of purely local significance. Archaeologists have tried to map the movement of ordinary people, by looking at the thousands of cemeteries which have survived from this period. But it is an uncertain task. Skeletons of immigrants cannot be distinguished from those among whom they settled, and the jewellery and other objects buried with the dead which might be categorized as 'Saxon' or 'Frankish' are as much a response to fashion or product availability as evidence of the ethnic identity of the corpse. Archaeology confirms, however, that migration took place. Those who came from north Germany to East Anglia, for instance, buried the ashes of their dead in pots made and decorated precisely as they had been in their homeland. And archaeology may suggest reasons for migration too. It seems that the land level in the coastal areas of north Germany was sinking in the fifth and sixth centuries, causing frequent or permanent flooding. Some inhabitants responded by building their settlements on mounds, or terpen; others, quite clearly, by making the crossing to Britain.
In 400 the Rhine, patrolled by ships such as those found recently at Mainz, was still a major dividing line between Roman and barbarian. Certainly some Franks had been ceded land to the west of the mouths of the Rhine, while other Germans captured in the fighting, including Franks, were settled in small groups throughout northern Gaul to serve as
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