Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

So we are now on our third lesson of six in this inquiry, how dark were the Dark Ages.

So in the first lesson, we look to the end of Roman Britain and what happened to what we think happened when the Romans abandoned Britain.

And then the next lesson, we looked at these different groups of people that migrated to Britain and then what we think happened, of course, we're not quite sure, which is one of the reasons I think we can say the Dark Ages were quite dark.

So this lesson, we're going to go a little bit further now into who the Anglo Saxons were? what what were their lives? Like, how do they live? What were their big concerns? What were their priorities.

And so, as ever, and the start of these lessons, what I want you to do is pause the video, simply write down the date of whatever day it is that you're doing this lesson on, and then write the title underlying both so that you can keep track of what you're doing.

And then when you've done restart and we will start the lesson so if you could make sure that you have the the the title Anglo Saxon society written down and underlined ideally with your date as well then that'd be fantastic when you've done that simply restart the video and we will continue with this lesson.

So pause now, get yourself ready hide your phone and we will start the lesson.

So on your screens is a rather boring looking picture.

However, the beneath these have mounts these these mounts, something incredible was discovered approaching 100 years ago now and a group of archaeologists were asked to dig this is what archaeologists dig.

They dug into these hills, they were they looked they were clearly manmade, people knew that they They weren't real, or they weren't, they weren't natural.

And they claim, somebody at some point had made them.

And what they found, transformed the way that we as historians as archaeologists saw, or see, the Anglo Saxon periods, what was found? I'm sorry, just before we get there, so this is where the hills were on in East Anglia.

If we think about our lesson, last lesson, this is the area that the angles and the Saxons settled in, after the Romans left, what they found, I got those two bills at then and then I was waiting for this dramatic picture and then it was just a map.

This is what was found a ship or the remains of a ship.

Now, the ship was buried in the early seventh century, and in the ship was found something very, very, very special.

Well, lots of very special things.

This was found.

For example, one of Many things that was found in this burial ah is known as the Sutton who, ah Sutton, who burial.

Now you can actually visit these discoveries in the British Museum.

And I've got some pictures up here as well.

So what we have here is a very, very beautifully made mask the remains of the mask.

So this is a reconstructed mask, of course, lots of it has just fallen apart or dissolve because it's so old.

And this isn't Anglo Saxon law.

this is very different to what the Romans wore.

And we know that they said, This is it, they're the that we know that this is no longer a Roman burial, because it happened many years after the Romans left.

And we have a very different kind of style of helmet.

What I'd like you to do now is do what we as historians and archaeologists do, we look at this, this object and we think what does this object tell us about the world or the culture or the society the society that made This helmet, really obvious stuff.

It can be really, really obvious.

So pause now maybe write a few things down.

What what, just without knowing anything at all, what do what can we know what do we know immediately by looking at this helmets? Well, first of all that they were warriors.

In a society where there's no fighting, you don't need helmets, you don't need armour so we can tell immediately that whoever was buried there was a fighter, a warrior.

Not only this, but in order to make this beautiful helmet, they must have been skilled at making things.

You can see the detail that's been made the beautiful metals that have been used the carving the shaping that's been done.

This was a piece of work that took a long time to make.

And not only this, this might be something that you wouldn't have picked up.

And but this style of helmet.

And there's similar types all over the place.

So this didn't come out of nowhere.

This is a this is a type of helmets that would have been familiar obviously a very really nice example of a helmet but this would have been familiar.

So this wasn't made out of nowhere clearly these people had been talking discussing ideas of how to make this kind of thing.

Also, at Sutton Hoo were found these Well, these are these are replicas, these are the these weren't actually found because the the originals were very sort of broken up and damaged.

But in this ship, as well as this beautiful hammock, we have drinking horns on the left, and we have something called a liar.

On the right, same question, what does the fact that we found these objects tell us about the people that lived or the person that was buried in this ship Well, again, they like drinking horns so they were hunters clearly they like partying clearly liar, you don't have a lie if you don't listen to music so we can learn a lot about our culture based on what we find buried in the ground and Sutton hill was one of these moments when historian suddenly archaeologists and historians and worked with what archaeologists had found, and were able to build a picture of what life was like in Anglo Saxon England.

The The last thing the last thing I wanted to show you as well, and so this is a purse lead.

So this is the lead so this Imagine you're looking down from the top of the bag would have been attached to this lid.

Now look very closely at the pictures that are inside the circles there, beautiful work there animals, they look like they're almost shouting in the ears of the of the people in It now that the fact that whichever person that the fact that someone was able to make this tells us a lot about this society that it was it was even though it was violent that what fighting was clearly important, and that somebody somewhere took the time to make this that somebody somewhere it was powerful enough and rich enough to ask for this thing there for this to be made.

So when we think about the last lesson, the arrival of the angles and the Saxons and the Jute and all these different tribes, these groups of people living very, very primitive and backward lives, not able to read and write, we start to see a change and the change is in a direction is definitely in a direction, things start to recover, having collapsed after the Roman Empire fell apart, having lost the ability to read and write having lost the ability to make these beautiful bits of art, the the the kind of things that we're familiar with, when we think about the Roman Empire, things start to change.

Another two things that were found at Sutton Hoo swords so then we think about helmets we have swords we have that beautiful purse led we have the the I've already said the helmet what else am I missing the drinking horns, the lies, we get a really good idea about what kind of society this was fighting, fighting and merriment lots of merriment and enjoy enjoyment as well.

And what I love about this particular sword, if you zoom in to the to that to the the hilt, so you would have had your hand would have been around the dark a bit and then this bit was stuck on the end.

And you can see it's a bit worn down.

And that's because the person who used this sword rested his hand, his gloved hand on the end of the sword.

Now the only reason you'd have those marks would be that this is a well used sword that probably have been used for many, many years.

So clearly this very special sword to someone that was then found in Sutton Hoo.

So what I'd like you to do very quickly which of the following was not discovered at Sutton Hoo? So we've looked at, we've looked at five or six pictures, and I want you to work out which of them was not discovered at Sutton Hoo, because this is quite important, actually quite important.

The answer is a crown.

Interesting enough, because we often think of Anglo-Saxon in England has lots of kings and queens there were but not quite yet, we start to see this change taking place, they arrive as tribes, these groups of often small family groups travelling from across the sea arriving in England, and they didn't arrive necessarily with kings.

And they arrived as small groups, and then gradually over time, these these these tribes become bigger, they become larger, and we'll look at this later on.

So one thing that wasn't found was a crown everything else was found.

And I also just want to remind us of the situ.

Sorry, I also want to remind us of the situation and that We as historians are confronted with, so the Anglo-Saxon Age, and for about 200 years, there simply was no, not very little was written down, things start to get written down in the six hundreds, a little bit before the six hundreds as well.

And but these there's a there's a big gap.

So we rely on archaeology, archaeology, the digging up of the remains of human activity now things start to change the pink line tells us that from 600 onwards, this does change, we still rely on archaeology, but we have more and more written stuff to look at.

So we're kind of on the on in the middle now we're sort of talking ah about the so we're looking at both both sides, both before and after 600.

But it's very difficult because what we to reconstruct how people lived is hard because we people often don't write much about themselves, they write down other things, but less about how they themselves are diaries are not very common at this point.

One thing we can look at, however, is something called Beowulf.

So Beowulf is a poem that you might actually come across on in your English lessons at some point, Beowulf is a poem ,that generally people think or historians, literature, people that are in into exploring literature and writing literature.

They think this poem comes from the period before 600s.

Now, this, this picture on the screen, this is the oldest version of Beowulf that we have.

And you have this bit of old paper stuck onto a new bit of paper to preserve it again, this, this is a this is a book that is now in the British Library.

Now, I want you to think about the images that I just showed you from Sutton Hoo, we're talking about Anglo Saxon society, what was Anglo Saxon society like? So we have the things that were found at Sutton Hoo, and then we have a poem that tells the talks about what was actually set in another country in Denmark, but it was written in England.

Now this again tells us a lot about the relationship between England and other parts of Europe.

And but there's this there's this poem is about fighting about kings about demons and monsters, ah very much about the world that would have been familiar to people in Anglo Saxon England.

And this is a quote from the poem Beowulf, and we're going to read it together because I think this is quite a fun, fun story.

"So there was a man called Shield Sheafson, terror of many tribes, a wrecker of bear benches, who rampaged among his enemies, this terror of the hall-troop had come far.

A young boy to start with, he would grow later on, as his powers grew and his worth was proven.

In the end each family on the distant coasts, beyond the whale-road, had to give into him and begin to pay tribute.

That was one good king".

So here we have a description in the poem Beowulf of what made a good king.

So there might be some words in there that you're not familiar with, but I want you to pause this now I want you to read through it.

Once more.

I want you to think what do you think makes Shield Sheafson this person, One good king? What's that? What's that? What's the impression that you're getting? The one word he might not be familiar with is tribute to pay tribute.

So tribute was something that you paid to someone higher up than you you paid them is kind of like a tax almost.

But it was a way of showing that you were obedient that you respected that person.

So just pause here and think about what made Shield Sheafons and one good king.

So these are the bits that I highlighted.

And I think these are the big things that stood up stood out for me, So first of all, we get this impression that he's very, very aggressive, he's very violent.

He rampages around causing all this trouble.

And he scares people.

And what we have is that he started as somebody quite weak but as he grew up, he grew up, he grew more powerful.

And his worth was proven.

So to get to get by in this world to impress people, you had to prove your worth.

You had to you had to show that you were you were allowed to that you're that you you were worthy of being respected.

And what I think is really interesting in this bit as well, in the in each family, so we're talking about families, I think the word in the poem is also translated as a clan or a tribe.

Each family, even though they live far away from him, had to give in to him and pay him tribute.

So clearly this king was a was as was a scare, it was a scary individual.

People were too afraid to not to not respect him.

So this is again if we think about Sutton Hoo, that what was found that then we add this to the picture.

We have a good idea of what mattered to Anglo Saxon people at the time.

Now here we have another way that we can get an idea of what Anglo Saxon society was like.

This is a something called the Peterborough Chronicle.

A Chronicle was something that was written down, that told a story.

Basically, it was a story of a particular moment in history or a particular King.

Now in this Chronicle is a set of rules passed by a king in Wessex, in the Anglo Saxon Kingdom of Wessex, in the set in the 600s.

King in his name was Ine and he, and he, this is the earliest law code that we have a law code as a set of rules that people have to agree with.

And this is one another way that we can get an idea of what Anglo Saxon society was like.

And here we have some of the law.

So these laws are passed in 694 ad, so we're talking almost 300 years after the Romans have left.

But again, We can get an idea of what life was like for people living in Anglo Saxon England.

So the first one, this is one of them.

There's lots of them.

But these are just the ones that I thought was quite interesting.

If anyone fights in the king's house, it shall be in the king's judgement , whether or not he shall lose his life.

So if you fight, you might die.

Now this same rule applies to if, you are in a church, in someone else's house, you risk losing your life if you fight, if a thief is captured, you will either be put to death almost pay for his life through payment of his wergeld.

Now, this is a word that we're going to be coming up against a few times but I got to meet man price is interesting idea that we'll look at 3.

If a ceorl has often been accused of theft, which is of stealing something and is finally proved guilty, he shall have his hand or his foot cut off.

And lastly, if a stranger goes through the woods of the highway, and neither calls out nor blows a horn, he may be killed, or to be redeemed by paying his wergeld.

So again, his man price.

So looking looking at these four, these four laws, we get a pretty clear idea of what Wessex was like, you don't need to pass a law if there's not a problem, a specific problem.

So clearly there was fighting in the King's House.

Clearly there were there were lots of people stealing things, clearly ceorl, which we'll look at in a moment, and what was stealing things.

And if a stranger clearly there was a problem if you're walking through a wood and there and you didn't have an that you were risk of being attacked.

And we again, we have this idea of the wergeld, the man price, you had a value based on how important you were.

And this is the shape of Anglo Saxon society.

So we've had a few things mentioned in the laws, but we have a pyramid shape.

So at the top, we have kings, bottom, we have slaves, so the Anglo Saxon society, there were a lot of slaves captured and made to work.

So beneath the kings, we have Earls, we have the have the close allies of the king the most important people working for the king we have Thegns and we have Ceorls so these are strange words that we probably haven't come across before but these are the different levels of Anglo Saxon society at each level.

So if you if you if your Ceorl you had a man price a waggles lower than a Thegns even lower than an Earl and especially after the king slaves did not have a workout because they didn't matter they have no value.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause here and work get get this back in order try and do it without looking back try it without cheating.

Oh, my apologies.

So I will put the the correct back.

Correct.

Triangle backup now just so you make sure you've got it.

Kings at the top.

Then we have Earls then we have Thegns then we have Ceorls then we have Slaves.

So we have the five different levels in Anglo Saxon society.

So what we're going to do now we've done this several times before, you're going to pause the video, you're going to close this video, you're going to go to the next part of the lesson, you're going to read through some slides, and then you're going to answer these five questions in full sentences.

I'm really, really, I really can't make this clearer.

Make it they must be full sentences.

This is what makes this is the big thing that we're going to be practising with this part of the lesson.

So pause the video, read the slides and answer the questions and then resume the video when you're done.

So first question, what was the name of the poem written in England in the sixth century? acceptable answer Beowulf good answer the name of the poem written in England in the sixth century was Beowulf.

Now what makes this a good answer is that a full sentence reusing the words on the question.

The acceptable answer is a single word therefore it's not.

It's not what actually I wouldn't say this is acceptable.

I want full sentences.

2.

what did kings have to be good at, according to Beowulf, acceptable answer fighting? Good answer.

According to Beowulf kings have to be good at fighting and leading warriors to battle.

If they won, they could give their followers the treasure captured from their enemy.

So here we have a much fuller answer full sentences, and it gives a much better idea of what kings have to be good at in order to keep their subjects loyal.

3.

what was the Witan Acceptable a group of important people again, we could do a lot more to get some that we don't need to do too much more to make this a good answer.

The good answer, the Witan was a group of important people who gave advice to the king.

Very important to have that last bit.

They weren't just a group of important people.

They were those who gave advice to the king and we see the Witan mentioned in Ien's Law.

So already in the 600s we have this idea of the Witan, advising the king 4.

what was the wergled, Acceptable Answer, the value of a person or the man price.

The Wergeld was the value in money given to a person based on how important they were.

To avoid being killed, a person could pay a certain amount of money instead.

So the waggon is really important principle a really important idea in Anglo Saxon society.

The higher up the food chain you were, the more valuable you were the lower down the less valuable were slaves did not have a value at all.

Why did king Ine need laws, acceptable answer; to control people Good Answer; King Ine needed laws because this helps him keep control of his kingdom and stop fights breaking out between his followers.

thinking about those laws to be read.

Clearly, for him to pass these laws.

There was there were some problems. There were people attacking people walking through words.

There Were people stealing things it was fighting in all his or in in the in the in the kings in the king's house.

So the reason he passed these laws was to make it clear that what was acceptable and what was not acceptable.

So Writing Activity historians we read and we write so this is what we're practising now.

Question we're going to answer what do we know about Anglo Saxon society? So thinking about all that we've got these different things we've looked at today, we've got kings laws, we've got the permanent Beowulf, and we've got what was found at Sutton Hoo.

So we're going to use these now to ask this question.

So pause here, thinking about those three different things that we've looked at.

And looking at what you've written in your answers just now.

Write down whatever whatever comes to mind about how the Anglo Saxons lived and what they cared about.

So based on what we've looked at so far in this lesson, and also in previous lessons, if you'd like to, if you'd like to think about that as well, what did Anglo Saxons care about.

and how did they live? How what was their what were their priorities? So pause here and have a go at that.

So these are the six points that I came down with I see if they match with what you've written.

If not, maybe copy them down.

So first of all, Anglo Saxon society was violent and there was fighting all the time.

So that's the first one I could think of.

Anglo Saxon kings were successful if they could capture treasure from rival kings.

Anglo Saxons showed off their power by wearing gold.

Everyone had to wergeld based on how important you were actually that's that's incorrect.

My apologies.

Slaves did not have a wergeld.

So that should that's incorrect.

My apologies.

And everyone bought slaves how to wergeld based on how important you were.

Slavery was very common.

very very common indeed, an Anglo Saxons feasted and drank a lot! so if we think about our if we think about the, the drinking horn and the liar that tells us that they like partying.

But the best way says to feed we we forget feasting is the is the better the better word for this.

So make sure you've got something like this down you can either copy it down or just get the general ideas down pause if you need to, to make sure you've got this in your books ready for this last part of the lesson.

So , we've done this before, and we're going to do again, very simple tasks.

I don't want you to take more than five or 10 minutes doing this simply fill in the gaps.

What was Anglo-Saxon society was like? so first sentence very clear answer.

Anglo society was very violent.

Now that's a statement.

That's that's That's a valid that's a that's a that's a correct statement to make.

But you need to prove that you're right this is what we need to do in history we as a good historians, we say something but we need to prove that we have proof or evidence that this is true not just made up.

It's not just opinion you can you can, you can have whatever opinion you like provided you have evidence to back it up.

So Anglo Saxon was very violent.

We know this because what So what have we looked at in today's lesson that tells us that Anglo-Saxon acts sorry, Anglo Saxon society was violent.

Again, another one Anglo Saxon society was unequal.

So how do we know this? Why do we know this? What tells us this? Anglo Saxons like to feast and drink in hails? Again, how do we know this? What is the proof what is the evidence so I'd like just the last part of this lesson? Don't I don't want to say too long, too long doing this.

But this is just a little bit of practise to to write.

Like right like it's always because that is the goal.

That is the goal of this of the of these lessons.

Have a go now and unpause when you're done, and that will bring us to the end of the lesson.

So if you'd like to, again, not compulsory at all, I just love to see the work the producing.

If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnWithOak.

And that brings us to the end of today's lesson on what the anglo.

is what Anglo Saxon society society was like, I hope you find it interesting and reconstructing what how people lived all that time ago using these different kinds of historical evidence to kind of piece together a picture of what we think life was like, of course, we can't ask anyone who lived at that time because it was so long ago.

So what do we do? Well, we have to look at these different types of sources, these different bits of evidence to get an idea of what was going on.

So as ever, please just finish the quiz at the end of this lesson just to make sure that you're the stuff that we've learned today stuck in your heads because that's the goal of course, and have a lovely day, wherever you are.