A new study questions a major hypothesis on the fall of the Roman Empire

The period after the abandonment of the Roman Empire has been known for a long time as the “dark ages” for a reason. The researchers thought that after the departure of the Romans, the local industries collapsed and indeed ceased progress for centuries. Great Britain, they have theorized, were plunged into a cultural and economic abyss with their departure.

But for a while, an increasing set of evidence challenged this story. And in a new study published today in the journal Antiquity, researchers are studying the hypothesis that the economy of British metals cease to function. More specifically, they interviewed the idea that when the Romans left Great Britain around 400, the country’s advance and iron production – which the Romans may have brought with them to the islands – immediately and irreparably declined.

Reinvent the economy of northern England

The researchers studied metal pollutants in a nucleus of sediment extracted from Aldborough in the North Yorkshire – an old Roman center for the production of metals. They combined this analysis with other local textual and archaeological evidence.

“Convince that pollution fluctuations correspond to socio-political events, pandemics and trends recorded in the production of British metals c. Ad 1100-1700, the authors extend the analysis to previous periods that lack written documents, providing a new post-Roman economic account for northern England,” explained the researchers in the document.

Until now, the fate of the British metal crucial industry after the left of the Romans was unknown, and there is no written evidence testifying that lead production continued after the third century. The researchers’ approach, however, revealed that the production of British metal remained strong until about a century after the departure of the Romans, undergoing a sudden drop for some time around 550-600 AD.

There remains a mystery which caused the accident, but other historical sources and DNA evidence suggest that Europe was engulfed by the bubonic plague at the time, devastating for the entire economy of the region.

The rich history of Great Britain of the manufacture of metals

However, research shows that “all industrial productions did not end at the beginning of the 5th century,” said Christopher Loveluck, the main study of the study and archaeologist at the University of Nottingham, in a press release.

“In Aldborough, metal production can develop regularly using minerals and coal fuel from the Roman period,” he added.

More broadly, the work of Loveluck and his team adds to the breeding of evidence which suggest that the so-called dark ages were not so dark after all.

Interestingly, the nucleus of sediments also reveals other post-Roman fluctuations in metal production that align with other pivotal events in British history, including the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII in the 16th century. Meanwhile, metal production has decreased significantly because people literally withdraw monasteries, abbeys and other religious houses, explains Loveluck.