From: tgpedersen
Message: 61274
Date: 2008-11-02
>According to Stephen Oppenheimer's 'The Origins of the British'
> Here's what Wik has to say about the Frisians. There is a note that
> Frisian pottery was found in England c. 150.
> Does the wiki seems accurate?
>
>
> ... The Frisii were known and respected by the Romans and written
> about by several sources. Tacitus wrote a treatise about the
> Germanic peoples in 69, describing the habits of the Germanic
> people, as well as listing numerous tribes by name. [8] Of the many
> tribes he mentioned, the name 'Frisii' is the only one still in use
> to refer unequivocally to the same ethnic group. [9]
> Friesland had been settled early, with evidence of terp-building,
> the distinctive raised settlements, starting in 700 BC. Frisii were
> mentioned by Roman historian Tacitus[10] and earlier by Pliny the
> Elder[11]. According to inscriptions found in Roman Britain [12]
> they served the Roman Army and used Frisiavones as a synonym.
> Expansion to the south-west occurred probably as early as 70 AD,
> when the westernmost parts of the rivermouth were abandoned by the
> Canninefates in the aftermath of the Batavian revolt by Julius
> Civilis.
> Emigration to Flanders [13] and Kent [14] happened peacefully
> within Roman jurisdiction and probably reached a height in the
> 250s, due to heavy flooding.
> Around 290 AD Constantius Chlorus mentioned Frisians among the
> pirates that were raiding Britain, but in the records the Saxons
> took over this reputation in the fourth century. This coincides
> with archeological evidence that habitation of the original area
> remained scarce for about 150 years and only recovered in the 400s.
> It has been suggested that by then a part of the Frisians had
> already merged with the Saxons, to whom they were closely related.
> The Frisian languages remain the closest surviving languages to
> English. [15]
> . . .
> They were probably a people of seafarers, the North Sea spanning
> from Britain to Eastern Denmark, was referred to as the Mare Frisia
> at that time.
> Small groups of Frisians settled the surrounding lands and their
> settlements have been traced to England, Scotland, Denmark,
> Germany, Belgium, France and obviously to The Netherlands.
> . . .
> In the 5th century, during this period of historical silence, many
> of them no doubt joined the migration of the Angles and Saxons who
> went through Frisian territory to invade Great Britain, while those
> who stayed on the continent expanded into the newly-emptied lands
> previously occupied by the Anglo-Saxons. By the end of the sixth
> century the Frisians occupied the coast all the way to the mouth of
> the Weser and spread farther still in the seventh century,
> southward down to Dorestad and even Bruges. This farthest extent of
> Frisian territory is known as Frisia Magna.
>