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
- NatalBrazil
- New YorkUnited States
- United States
- Little RockUnited States
- ChicagoUnited States
- BronxUnited States
- United Kingdom
- PhiladelphiaUnited States
- United Kingdom
- LondonUnited Kingdom
- DestinUnited States
- United Kingdom
- New YorkUnited States
- United Kingdom
- RocklinUnited States
- Taiwan
- FairbanksUnited States
- Port TownsendUnited States
- San AntonioUnited States
- West EndAustralia
- New YorkUnited States
- OremUnited States
- HatterasUnited States
- Cameroon
- Hernando BeachUnited States
Multimedia
Impacts
No impacts have been left for this site yet - be the first!