UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: The end of Roman Britain: what ended, when and why?
Dr Andrew Gardner (UCL Institute of Archaeology)
A crucial event in the formation of the culture and identity of Britain occurred 1600 years ago - or did it? While tradition has it that the Roman occupation of Britain ended in AD 410, events surrounding this year need to be seen in the context of longer processes of change and of the problems that beset archaeological and historical evidence from this period. This lecture will consider the key question of who and what was 'Roman' in 4th century Britain as a prelude to thinking about what exactly changed in the early 5th century, and why.