What Did Anglo Saxons Think Of Roman Ruins?

Seeing the ruins of an ancient civilisation is a mystifying feeling. This video goes over what Anglo-Saxons thought of Roman (and other!) ruins that they saw within the landscape.
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[@GuthlacYT]

Sticky comment answering commonly featured comments. Feel free to still comment some variation of the below, but I won't reply, and you'll look a bit silly. 1. "They knew about the Romans! They arrived when the ruins were still being inhabited!" - Please see at this timestamp: 6:38 - To put the complicated nuances of this argument aside, The Anglo-Saxon period spans 700 years. If you think that some people arriving in 400AD as mercenaries means that people in 600AD, 800AD, or 1000AD had a catalogic understanding of Roman ruins, then I'd love to hear your blow-by-blow account of Waterloo, the English Civil War, and Agincourt without using any books (as, of course, the vast majority of people were illiterate.) 2. "They did what everyone else in the world did - they re-used the building material" - The Anglo-Saxon period is peculiar in that this wasn't the case in secular buildings. Only ten of the hundreds of settlement sites that have been excavated in England from this period have revealed masonry domestic structures. Anglo-Saxon kings' "preference must have been a conscious choice, perhaps an expression of ‘deeply-embedded Germanic identity’ on the part of the Anglo-Saxon royalty" (quote from Michael Shapland's 2013 article, " Meanings of Timber and Stone in Anglo-Saxon Building Practice"). If you're interested in this topic, let me know, and I'll bump this topic up my to-do list as a video in the future. 3. "Please add your sources!" - I'm convinced people ask this question purely to look like they check sources, rather than to actually check them. But I'll outline my method for dealing with sources below. - The sources are on the screen. The primary sources are mentioned on the screen. I don't use secondary sources in this video because this is my musings and thoughts of Anglo-Saxon poetry. But if I did, they would be on the screen. - I don't put this in the description because otherwise the statement is disconnected from the source. If I'm quoting, the quotes and sources are on the screen. - I tend to translate primary sources myself depending on the points I want to communicate, using my own knowledge and a few different copies that I have lying around in my personal collection. For general intrigue, you can find the Old English text and a modern English translation for the two poems below: The Ruin: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruin Beowulf: heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.html Here is a Latin version of Bede: www.thelatinlibrary.com/bede.html

[@Spartan_Disiplin]

Every Saxon who received church education must knew very well about Roman civilization because Latin works were basis of their intellectual knowledge. They most likely knew that those ruins belonged to the Romans. I think you should have shared what the Saxon primary sources said, not mythological source that proceeds with a symbolic narrative.

[@cristianroth8524]

What would be the hardest to comprehend for an Anglo-Saxon is the sheer scale of the Roman Empire and its endeavours. Imagine telling a Mercian king who marched with a few hundred men to take a town that long ago, the Roman Empire stretched 1000 miles to the south and 2000 miles to the East, or that 80,000 Romans clashed with 50,000 Carthaginians.

[@BaylaOwen]

Mercia was built in a few lifetimes, however Rome was built during life and life over thousands of years

[@TheBanjoShowOfficial]

@@BaylaOwen Rome built over thousands of years??? Huh???

[@cristianroth8524]

@@BaylaOwen Nah, in historical terms, Rome had a lightning fast expansion. In little over two centuries, they went from controlling Italy to controlling virtually the entire Mediterranean.

[@BaylaOwen]

@@TheBanjoShowOfficial Im refering to both Rome, and East Rome, are you on the stupid juice? Whos Your supplier I want some

[@Blossomtree183]

@@TheBanjoShowOfficial Rome was built in 753 bce, and Constantinople fell in 1453 ce, that’s over two millennia, all the way to 1805, if you count the HRE, and 1917, if you count the Romanovs.

[@oriontigley5089]

KZbin reccomendations finally giving me a gem

[@callumbush1]

KZbin is a propaganda network

[@dontpanic7153]

​​@@callumbush1 KZbin runs on algorithms that recommend videos that are similar to what you have previously watched. There is a wide variety of propaganda available on youtube, but what propaganda gets recommended to you depends on what propaganda you're more likely to consume. There are also cat videos.

[@callumbush1]

@dontpanic7153 yeah I know all this but KZbin still is a propaganda platform!

[@Kaizen747]

Like the video to feed the algorithmus

[@wolfiemum461]

@@callumbush1yet here you are

[@teamacio9043]

I remeber me and my friends randomly found some abstract modern monumnets surrounded by strange ruins, repeating rows of overgrown stone walls and man made flattened terrain. We had no idea what it was and concluded that it was some victory monument. It turned out we were way off, those were ruins of a ww2 concentration camp execution place and burial grounds.

[@mowvu]

jeez that took a turn at the end

[@Ridley369]

Lmao okay

[@NONO-oy1cu]

well that took a dark turn

[@mikesands4681]

They probably saw them in 5th century and said, this British place had nice functioning towns with foreign Roman architecture. When people talk about Roman Britain, they forget that it was the britons who physically lifted the stones and lived there.

[@TonyFapioni]

Yet they couldn’t maintain the infrastructure when Roman society collapsed

[@Cadian-8th-4676]

Cumbria still had its roman government as a civitas until the 8th century under the kingdom of rheged

[@karst1559]

Lifting stones isn't that impressive as a skill if you don't know what to do with it next.

[@Cadian-8th-4676]

@karst1559 They did though that's why they were building new churches and forts

[@dungeonsanddobbers2683]

They also forget that Roman rule in Britain ended (c.410) less than a generation before the archaeological record shows Romano-British culture being quickly replaced by _Anglo-Saxon_ culture (c.430). The Roman empire and the Anglo Saxons were contemporaries, not the unknowable civilisations separated by centuries that the video is making them out to be.

[@sethleoric2598]

>"Damn must have been a nice building, welp gonna use this to build my house"

[@faithlesshound5621]

For a long time the Anglo-Saxons refrained from re-using Roman stone except for churches. Their homes were made of wood, earth and dung and decayed leaving next to no footprint, only a few post-holes in the ground.

[@NachoNov90]

There's a very interesting scene in Vikings, in which the monk Athelstan (if I remember well) spoke with the King of Wessex? About the Romans and the legacy they left in Britain and how important was to preserve roman work and knowledge. Although this was the late Anglo-Saxon era, it gives an interesting thought of how the anglo Saxon elite at least, educated mostly by the church, knew very well who the Romans were and what they did.

[@Gewyne]

Some also also travelled to Rome, Alfred the great for example had been to Rome twice before he was seven years old.

[@pedropenna7480]

Hey, is that Eric Cartman strolling around medieval england?

[@iantacke5804]

Majin Buu

[@toi_techno]

Aric Kartrmann

[@asagoldsmith3328]

These ruins are so KEWL

[@andrewfarrington6627]

Screw you guys I'm going back to Rome!"

[@advic65]

"Vanished like a fleet of cloud, Like a passing trumpet-blast, Are those splendors of the past, And the commerce and the crowd! Fathoms deep beneath the seas Lie the ancient wharves and quays, Swallowed by the engulfing waves; Silent streets and vacant halls, Ruined roofs and towers and walls; Hidden from all mortal eyes, Deep the sunken city lies: Even cities have their graves!" - Amalfi, by H.W. Longfellow. Contemplating the ages come and gone before us is truly a timeless part of human life.

[@YarPirates-vy7iv]

Uthred had this moment in the Bernard Cornwell books quite a few times.

[@RandomNonsense1985]

Destiny is all!

[@alexrex69]

im uthred, son of uthred 🗣🗣🗣🗣

[@fghjjjk]

Saxon helmets such as that found at sutton hoo were based on Roman cavalry helmets, of course they knew aboutbtye Romans

[@sonarbuge7958]

How can you say that and know for certain it was because they knew about people from 500 years prior and not just ‘this is how my father had his helmet, and his father before him’ so on and so forth

[@fghjjjk]

@sonarbuge7958 the neolithic ppl of Ireland not only knew about the WHG population that preceeded them, they idolised them amd bred with them as shown by the high genetics content of WHG dna in grave 10 in Newgrange. So if ppl 6k years ago knew who was there before why wouldn't the saxons?

[@sailormatlac9114]

@@sonarbuge7958 Exact. You can repeat a tradition on how you craft an item and have no clue about its true origin. I recall my granddad was a carpenter, he gave a trick to my father how to mark a cut on lumber to always place the saw in the right spot. He had learned it on the trade. I picked up that trick from my father years later. A month ago, I was at an ancient architecture convention and they talked about lumber was cut to length to assemble structure. They described a few typical cut marks that were written down in carpentry manuals from the 16th century, which probably summed up a large array of oral traditions that go back further. What I thought was a clever trick I got from my grandfather, was a bastardized version of a highly develop skill that was probably many centuries if not thousands of years old. We live about 500 years from that carpentry treaty, I still use the trick but was completely unaware of it and I'm sure many guys working professionally in carpentry nowadays still use that trick and aren't aware of its origin.

[@histguy101]

​@@sonarbuge7958the Romans and Saxons knew each other, had dealings and fought

[@christianwithers7335]

Of course, how else did the Romans utilise AS mercenaries? But the question is not how a 3rd century British Anglo Saxon questioned Rome, but rather how an 8th century English person (with 300 years without British Romans) questioned Rome, that separation and loss of continuous connection being crucial

[@user-tm8jt2py3d]

3:07 talking about Britain in 2030

[@ColasTeam]

Great video, glad the algorithm picked it for me. The trope of the empire, long ago, long forgotten, whose ruins litter the landscape, is a very fundamentally western one because of things like this.

[@germ-x6855]

All civilizations have ruins and ancient, dead empires. Not just the west

[@wnwkrodb3b]

​@@germ-x6855 the ruined empire trope is typical western though. Partly decolonisiation,partly fall of european influence post wold war 2.

[@TheCalmack]

@@germ-x6855 He's not saying that they don't in his comment. Maybe "dustseawung" is universal, or maybe it's linguistic. It's an interesting question

[@BaylaOwen]

Germanic people heared stories about what their cousins like the Lombards, Burgundians, Vandals, And Goths did in the South, and whos to say it wasnt Jutes or Saxons or Angles threataning Roman safety in the region of Britannia which made the Romans flee opening up "free" land for the Germans, and I am sure several Saxons just -asked- the Welsh/Britons what happened and they were like "The Romans pulled up"

[@christianwithers7335]

Anglo Saxons were garrisoned in Roman forts 1800 years ago in Britain

[@BaylaOwen]

@christianwithers7335 There were certainly Germanic people like Angles and Saxons stationed there getting coin from Rome, but like everywhere there were probably enemy Germanic groups camped nearby ready to fight Romans and Romafied peoples

[@aleveryonesdaddyhorford8109]

Yeah all of the Germanic tribes that were anywhere near the Roman border would have known all about the Romans and certainly would have traded with them..

[@dshock85]

Considering it was Romano British that asked helped from Anglo Saxon mercenaries, I imagine they already knew what it was all about. When they arrived they probably saw some villas still in use and these wealthy Romano British. Who would as time went on flee and abandon the lands and head west and then to Britany and Wales. Which was basically the last strong hold of Romano Britons. A century later their kids and kings would probably kind of forget but you had Gildas write about the history of Roman Britain in the 7th century.

[@christianwithers7335]

Way before then the Romans asked the Anglo Saxons to defend Hadrians wall against the Scottish. The AS were garrisoned at Carlisle in the 2nd century. The AS were living in Britain before the Romans arrived.

[@richbrooke3008]

The novel "The buried giant" by Kazuo Ishiguro provides interesting reflections on these times!

[@JcoleMc]

Can you do what the arabs thought of Roman ruins , did they know the ruins in iberia were connected to those in italy and bryzantine ? Or did they think each of these were separate remains from different kingdoms ?

[@GuthlacYT]

That would be interesting, but I don't know that I'll pursue it as a video topic, I'm afraid. I don't have the necessary knowledge in Arabic / Islamic culture to make it like I do with Old English. I do know by it bumping onto my research interests that it's common in Arabic texts for there to be a stone that 'speaks' - which may come from the discovery of hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian texts. But beyond that I don't know much more I'm afraid!

[@cristianroth8524]

Chances are, they were more informed about their surroundings. The Middle East benefitted from two things: prolonged contact with the Roman world, and being the hub of science for centuries.

[@HhHh-oc1yv]

they knew they were from the romans since they co existed with them the umayyads tried to imitate them due to their wealth and prestige which in part lead to their overthrow by the abbasid’s revolution.

[@Esdru221]

They utilized the majority of roman infrastructure, in fact, they copied/ improved almost all. Especially roads. How do you think that they conquered Iberia in 3 years?

[@JcoleMc]

@@cristianroth8524 Yeah but clearly not everyone in the middle east knew There is a story of a muslim scholar documenting the peoples of the mediterrain and when he gets to rome italy he seems confused on how sophisticated it was " No one knows why God would bless such non believers with such works of , literature , arts and sciences " And then he goes on to talk about how Ancient Franks and Romans conquered the North African coast but did not stay long enough to civilize the region So they knew Rome existed but they probably didn't think it was much bigger then italy

[@Mary-supremacist]

The saddest part of this video is realizing that future civilizations will have to come up with stories to explain the Hawk Tuah meme.

[@dirckthedork-knight1201]

He's finally back!! The many different stories inside Beowulf are a very fascinating topic which practically no other KZbin content creator has touched this could be a good topic for a future video

[@GuthlacYT]

that's an interesting idea! I'll see what I can do with that!

[@jbussa]

a new Guthlac video!

[@masterofallthelakesintown2472]

5:27 the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbits also Revolver around that. No Wonder since Tolkin was THE buff on Anglo-Saxon history and beowulf.

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

Its like the Dashka Stone find in Russia , a millions years pre-human civilization, maybe around the Jurassic Period showing vehicles. One can only think about what that civilization looked like, what their citizens looked like? Does Civilizations happens each x millions years and leave no traces? Are we one of the countless civilizations but think we are the first and only one? That becomes philosophical

[@falken5688]

Criminally underrated channel

[@JcoleMc]

Its only been what 200 years ? How would the roman empire's ecistence be forgotten so easily

[@LetsGoMan]

With the collapse of a well connected civiliazation like that. Records arent kept anymore and survival is more difficult so history is often forgoton and left to rot in order to survive.

[@generalbelisarius8103]

that's why it's called the dark ages

[@def3ndr887]

By the time the Anglo-Saxons began their conquest the Britons had reverted back to hill fort civilizations that dated before the Romans conquered it.

[@fghjjjk]

​@def3ndr887 bit simple that. The migration period was triggered by a failing Rome. Of course they will have known about Empire that dominated the known world for over 500 years before them. It's arrogant to think otherwise.

[@def3ndr887]

@@fghjjjk I’m not being arrogant it was noted that the Picts were wreaking havoc on the Britannia with the Britons themselves fighting amongst eachother and with Roman commanders depleting the the isles of manpower in order to become emperors themselves. One of their messages being to sent to Rome two decades prior to it’s fall said “Barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea throws us back unto the barbarian, thus two modes of death await us, either we are slain or drowned.” After the fall most Roman infrastructure could no longer be maintained with the south and east of Britannia suffering the most with only grandfathers and middle aged people within the romanized communities recalling old Roman society by the time the Saxon conquered it.

[@larsrons7937]

Very probable thoughts and speculations, I think. Well done. Thanks for this nice video.

[@christianfreedom-seeker2025]

The Saxons must have KNOWN about the Romans because it was the early Saxons and Jutes that raided late Roman Britian! Perhaps the later, Christian Saxons didn't know about the Romans because the oral lore or tradition didn't focus on the Romans.

[@markjd4]

I had wondered about this exact topic for DECADES, and finally this comes across my feed. I tip my hat to you, sir.

[@Lord_Merterus]

Great video, very informative. I hope the algorithm gods bless your channel.

[@28-r8b]

this would make a good concept/inspiration for a game.

[@HenryBrewerCalvert]

This was wonderfully well thought out thank you

[@archiehurman7435]

4:45 got me

[@SantaFe19484]

I have dust contemplation when I look at abandoned train stations in the USA.

[@sdv4675]

Great video. Try to use sources and mention them specifically and put them in the description tho. It goes a long way to help your credibility and i personally find it fun to look at the sources myself.

[@GuthlacYT]

All of the sources ~are~ mentioned in the video!

[@no.6660]

The algorithm has once again done me a great favour

[@DaDoM123]

God bless these isles

[@CL-vb2qt]

Just found your channel , Great job 👍🏼

[@M-Rayan]

beautiful video

[@weyjosh5213]

great thanks for giving light and life back to anglo saxon history to which many have forgottenen. God speed, Wes ðu hal!

[@dmthandmade5674]

They thought the exact same thing as the Egyptians who lived in the shadow of the Pyramids millennia after they were built. 'Hey, that weird old thing we can neither replicate or maintain would be an excellent source of building materials for our inferior structures'. Marble statues make a great source of lime if you chuck them in your charcoal kiln.

[@stephencrompton4352]

*archaeologist 1000 years in the future at an excavation site, looks on an inscription* It reads "skibidi toilet, fanum tax". "Hmmm, must be an ancient Anglo proverb of profound wisdom, we must try to interpret it"

[@whentheleveebreaks3962]

Being from Northumberland, I can think of a few local examples linking ancient ruins with giants and gods. In local folklore, the Devil's Causeway (the old Roman road linking Corbridge with Berwick) was said to be built by a race of giants known as Ettins (presumably derived from the Old English 'eotenas' meaning giants). Even the name 'Devil's Causeway' implies a later attempt to Christianise these earlier pagan beliefs. There's an old legend from Corbridge of a giant named Cor who lived in the ruined Roman city next to the village. Cor was also said to be responsible for some natural rock features at Tynemouth. Up in the Cheviot Hills there's also an old hillfort named 'Woden Law', which was presumably associated with the god. I could go on, and I'm sure there's many more examples from right across Britain too.

[@GuthlacYT]

@@whentheleveebreaks3962 Cor at Corbridge is one of my favourite examples of local folklore! One that's on my video idea pile for some point in the future.

[@carlosvalenciah8306]

“According to people better traveled than you” I did not expect that sir😂😂

[@ygstraightout2780]

Its like watching a savage trying to comprehend a civilized culture

[@paintedweasels]

I have a realm that has tons of roman ruins, it was the roman ruins in Assassins creed brotherhood that made me stop like Guthlac described and just ponder them, then i got interested in the history and in 2012 started a minecraft roman city that still exists 12 years later today

[@njhoepner]

It depends on when one is talking about...the Saxons had been raiding the coasts of Roman Britain and Gaul for over a century before the empire came apart, so if you asked then, they'd be pretty familiar with the Romans. A century later, when they began their conquest of Britain, it would be more like folk memory, but they'd recognize Roman ruins when they saw them. By the time of Bede in the 8th century, the Romans would be the stuff of legend for most people. Still, I think they'd be able to tell Roman from pre-Roman just by the materials and workmanship.

[@purefoldnz3070]

What did they think? "Ohh free masonry to finish my dwelling."

[@RumRunneerFilms]

Saxons looking at ancient burial mounds: I want to go to there.

[@JoseRodriguez-oc5go]

Who's to say that we're still not misinterpreting what happened before we were born?

[@WorthlessWinner]

No one ever forgot about the Romans - how could they when they have such a strong association with Christianity?! But it's amazing how fast DETAILS were forgotten. Nennius was wrong on basically every detail of Roman history!

[@Bronasaxon]

‘Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair”

[@Jojonogogo]

Only about a minute and a half in but, they would’ve thought about them in the same way they thought of their other ancestors, as the Romano-Britons, were their ancestors as well as the angles, saxons and jutes. A long gone people who became who they were, in the same way that the Anglo-saxons of yesteryear became the modern English peoples ancestors.

[@AgainsaidBen]

The idea that the giants died in the flood, doesn't that come directly from the book of Genesis?

[@tirididjdjwieidiw1138]

The book of enoch talks about a race of half angelic, half human creatures called Nephilim, proposing that this is the reason for the great flood, but this is probably coincidental, considering that the book of enoch was discovered way later and isn’t canonical in both christianity and judaism. still a cool coincidence though.

[@histguy101]

The Romans and Anglo Saxons were contemporary and knew each other. Remember, it was the Romans who named the "Saxon Shore," and built all those forts to protect from Saxon raids. Those ruins werent just instantly ruins. Also, Hadrians wall was built and rebuilt many times. The big stone wall that we see the ruins of was built under Septimius Severus and not Hadrian, and several late Roman emperors had a presence there, like Constantius I who campaigned in the north, or Theodosius the elder, who launched a campaign into Britain and reestablished the region around the Hadrian and Antonine walls in the late 4th century and may have rebuilt the forts and walls at that time.

[@brentstephens4081]

Thankyou bro

[@vonmusel6158]

so they had awe, bitter-sweet feelings of loss and reverence for the unknown builders

[@techmaster9775]

Just watched the pale ale Boltgun video and on the clock you post this ^^

[@xmaniac99]

How does this make sense. Literally all of the senior clergy and educators came from either Rome or Constantinople. They could literally ask them and they woud have responded “this island was ours once and these are our cities, roads, bridges, ports and walls that tower the landscape”.

[@GuthlacYT]

@xmaniac99 I guess if you watched the video, you'd clock that this is a consideration of more than literal knowledge, and more than the educated few!

[@xmaniac99]

@ I did watch the video and this question is what came to mind. Thanks for responding to the comment!

[@l1n5n8]

I saw the thumbnail and almost skipped cuz I thought it was that sargon of akkad goober.

[@GuthlacYT]

Oh god! Nope, I'm not Sargon of Akkad, thankfully!

[@normalpunch3800]

this is gold

[@toykthetoker7174]

Just like them you project our current time and ideals on to the thought of future and past people

[@michellebeckham5310]

How long did it take for Roman ruins to become Roman ruins?

[@RFL1976]

What were the Anglo Saxons doing wandering about Greece and Turkey?

[@zackcook5123]

What?

[@RFL1976]

@@zackcook5123 Most of the footage is ruins from those Mediterranean area's, i was expecting to something about ruins in Britain

[@LTPottenger]

Saxons were extremely advanced so it would not be that crazy to them.

[@toi_techno]

Cool vid We've taken a winding path to true civilisation A path we're still walking

[@caiuspostumiusturrinus1024]

Funny. Roman concrete only got stronger as time went on. They would only be unrecognizable if deliberately destroyed. Which was a frequent occurrence. But to say they decayed isn't how limestone works.

[@GuthlacYT]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion

[@MohamedAmineTrabelsi-in4ke]

Can more videos about Wales history/mythology please 🥺

[@ihatepie5937]

Is that... Dungeon serpent album 👀

[@simonb1846]

Was Rome just completely forgotten? Nobody told stories about them at the camp fire for taverns?

[@ldm6752]

Never mind Bede, with all our knowledge, most modern people know little or nothing about Romans.

[@chrisdafurr]

Hey Guthlac please please add your sources under the video description, because then I cant take anything you say seriously about the topic

[@GuthlacYT]

@@chrisdafurr the sources are in the video! When I say 'in Beowulf', you can find a source in Beowulf, when I say 'in The Ruin', it's in The Ruin. The analysis of these sources is by and large my own, so providing sources is impossible.

[@S3aCa1mRa1n]

Askellaad in Vinland saga

[@jacklawton7870]

This is a good video

[@MeatGoblin88]

What did dudes from North Dakota named Dan think of what the Anglo Saxons thought of Roman ruins?

[@Melkorleo103]

what's the name of the music you used? Where did you find it?

[@BarringtonDailey]

They may not speak of you at all! Then again we now have digital media and film. As long as some part of Civilization remains, it's likely they could see film of the era, something that was not possible before the 19th century.

[@hellowellallen]

nobody knew what a school was either

[@WarDogMadness]

They thought great motar and building matterial.

[@canaldojuuj]

loss referece is wild

[@BalorBot]

Fuck yes, SAXON CONTENT!

[@Thicite]

Great video!

[@uissssi7893]

cool👍

[@vovabars1234]

They thought: "Those are nice roman buildings", saxons knew about romans, basically all tribes and nations in Europe and Mediterranean did

[@HannibalBarcaRTW]

why is there so many anglo saxon comments?

[@astralpurrjection5931]

It's by the peoples whom discovered ctrl c ctrl v

[@ShaneSchambach]

What do you mean when you say that the Anglo-Saxons didn’t know about the Romans?? They quickly repopulated the island right after the last legion abandoned it- or quickly thereafter, in the early 6th century AD. They were Germanic warrior tribes who opposed the Romans, if not the Angles, at least the Saxons. They were there to quickly suppress Roman legacy and culture in the former Britannia. So when you say that the Anglo-Saxons pondered about the ruins they saw, pondering where they came from, how could they not know they had belonged to the civilization they ‘took over’ in Britain? Whose other ruins were they, if not the Romans’? The Britons’?

[@JohnDoe-sw1rs]

They were illiterate barbarians without a strong oral tradition. Knowing who they conquered the land from would be knowledge lost after a few generations.

[@theinquisitor8112]

Er, giants?

[@kindlytoxic1472]

gebasod?

[@Louisus]

NOT “ruins” they are Testaments

[@MrSpaceMees]

this is going to be us in a 100 years

[@willweisenburger4699]

Assassin's Creed Valhalla anyone?

[@electricVGC]

I would simply take the rocks to build walls in my city

[@Parabellum.silvano]

They actually did this to build houses, that's why Hadrian's Wall is missing so many blocks.

[@the98themperoroftheholybri33]

Many castle walls in England are old Roman walls, we just built an extension to them, take a look at York castle for example

[@johannageisel5390]

That's why Roman Trier is pretty flat by now: They used the stones over ground to build the medieval city of Trier.

[@dungeonsanddobbers2683]

Yeah, as others have said, this is _exactly_ what happened. Not just with old Roman buildings, but _any_ old stone building would get quarried for stone. The Tudors did it after the dissolution of the monasteries, hell, the ancient Egyptians quarried _the pyramids_ for stone.

[@electricVGC]

I don't know why this wasn't obvious but yes I was well aware they did this, that was the joke

[@tomtravis3077]

History does not rhyme, but it repeats. Our current civilizational iteration is experiencing similar problems to the Romans. The birthrate is declining in 189 countries. Perhaps in the 22nd century, there will be people wandering among the ruins. Contemplating towers that stretch to the sky.

[@dungeonsanddobbers2683]

What did Anglo Saxons think of Roman _ruins_ ? Probably not much considering the Anglo Saxon migration began in the early 5th century, around the time the Roman Empire started to collapse. In fact the archaeological record shows that Romano-British culture was being quickly replaced by Anglo-Saxon culture a mere 20 years after the Romano-Britons kicked Emperor Constantine III (who had been declared Emperor _in_ Britain) out of Britain. Which means the "Roman ruins" they would have encountered would have been those the Anglo Saxons _made_

[@chebailey950]

How do you know that the Angles and Saxons thought the same thing. Also the roads were laid by the Britons, all the Tomans did was resurface them because thier chariots were shit.