European Context

The Goths sacked Rome in 410. Rome was sacked by the Vandals in 455, roughly the date when the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles claim the Angles arrived in the south of Britain. Who were the Goths and Vandals?

Archaeological History of Młochów, Poland (Pdf on Fileden) sets a small iron producing settlement in central Poland from the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD into the wider context of the Roman conflict against the Barbarians and the eventual sacking of Rome. The people who lived in Młochów are believed to have been Vandals before the emigrations that led them round Europe to Rome. They were probably supplanted by the Goths, but the Młochów site fails before then and says little about them. The Goths reached Rome first by a more direct route.

NB: the file is quite large - it contains pictures, so it may be better to save to your computer rather than open directly.

The views of Polish archaeologist, Stefan Woyda are presented in the note. He believed that the Vandals around Warsaw (more correctly the Przeworsk Culture) were consciously developing a large armed force for a united Barbarian world that would defeat the Romans and conquer Europe.

Anyone with a specific interest in Anglo-Saxon production of iron or pottery may find some interesting background if they have no knowledge of Central European production in this period.