Offa's Dyke
Overview
Offa's great earthwork has historical significance beyond the immediate context of it being a construction to mark the boundary of the ancient kingdom of Mercia. The Dyke exemplifies processes of increasingly political centralisation across Anglo-Saxon Britain and contemporary Europe which were eventually to lead to the emergence of the geographical and cultural domains - such as England and Wales - we live with today. It could indeed be that the Dyke itself directly influenced such developments, particularly with respect to the genesis of a politically coherent Welsh identity in the early medieval period. Though short lived as an active Mercian/Anglo-Saxon frontier, its continuing existence as an evident dividing line in the landscape may still have been a powerful ideological statement of the apparent separation of all to the west from 'English' Britain, so helping to create a common sense of unity among Welsh peoples which had not previously existed.
http://www.cpat.org.uk/offa/what.htm
http://www.fylderamblers.org.uk/walkingholidays/offasdyke.htm
Location:
Comments
Connections
- Abu DhabiUnited Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- Biggera WatersAustralia
- BallwinUnited States
- United States
-
- New YorkUnited States
- Hanover ParkUnited States
- JamaicaUnited States
- Granite BayUnited States
- MontclairUnited States
- GeorgetownUnited States
- TampaUnited States
- Traverse CityUnited States
- ChandlerUnited States
- ParkerUnited States
- FriscoUnited States
- SeattleUnited States
- AlvaUnited Kingdom
- RoodepoortSouth Africa
- SarasotaUnited States
- New YorkUnited States
- United States
- FairbanksUnited States
- CaliColombia
Multimedia
Impacts
No impacts have been left for this site yet - be the first!