no.10(1968

The historical geography of Britain and its first peoples are discussed with the geographical perspective provided by the concepts of "Atlantic Europe" and "Western Europe". Humbly, this study aims to contribute to the expansion of the geographical perception of England through the axis of Western European historical geography in Turkish historiography by using the light of studies on the prehistoric period. Throughout the centuries, the British Isles served as an important transit station for the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea routes as a nodal point in the north of the European mainland. In this context, Britain’s regional geography has been scrutinized by centered on the strategic location of the Island within the transportation networks. Secondly, The Celts -first known settled community of the British Isles- provided the opportunity to evaluate the population of the island through the phenomenon of migration in the prehistory period from the upper scale perspective of regional geography. The Celts, who were adept at processing iron, maintained their settlements in the British Isles for many years under the influence of this tool-equipment power that determined the superiority of other communities. Furthermore, Celts have been the subject of ethnic origin studies since the age of Nationalism. In the light of the findings, the Celts genetically influenced the red-haired tough-looking breed in Ireland and western Scotland with their dark, curly-haired typologies. It was concluded that most of the blond population in the British population came from Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian ancestors. The extensive presence of the Celts in Western Europe helps us to perceive Britain’s regional geography and reveals the historical phenomenon of geographical transitivity.

Supersedes: Newsletter / British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

This paper had its origin with a lecture given at MGIMO University in 2023 on an obscure matter of 11th century history. It seeks to develop the central theme of that talk, which is that genealogical research, combined with linguistic insights taken from onomastics, can contribute to reaching a more accurate understanding of medieval political history. As such, an attempt will here be made to further develop this theme. What will herein appear will be neither a political nor a social history. It will be a genealogically based historical study of a small number of individuals that occasionally uses onomastics and epigraphy as supporting evidence. As such, nothing written was done so in order to prove or disprove a politically motivated point, but rather as a part of what most concerns genealogy, which is the placing of the genealogist, himself or herself (or, in this case, the author), as accurately as possible within the flow of human history by the means of studying one’s direct ancestors and their network of family members. Analysis was done on a certain small prosopographically organized (i.e. centred on a network of specific individuals) set of data dealing largely with the family connections (both marital and genetic) of Vladimir the Great of Old Rus, Vladimir’s wives Rogneda of Polotsk and Anna Porphyrogenita of the Eastern Roman Empire, Vladimir’s children Dobroniega Maria of Poland and Yaroslav the Wise of Old Rus, Yaroslav’s wife Ingegerd of Sweden (known in Russia as Irina), and Agatha, the mother of Saint Margaret of Scotland. The geography of the genealogical relationships involving these individuals covers a multitude of European countries, reaching from Scotland and England at one geographic extreme to Old Rus, the first Bulgarian empire, and Byzantium at another. This study, though genealogical in nature, mirrors the political history the above-mentioned individuals represent, a history that can be seen as following trade routes, meaning that, though mutual impact at both a familial and political level was real between the opposite sides of the European continent, it happened very largely by way of Scandinavia and, to a rather lesser extent, through the Holy Roman Empire. The genealogy shows that Scandinavian countries, as a unit, had a far greater role to play for both the British Isles and for Old Rus than either of these regions had for each other. Likewise, the genealogical backgrounds of the individuals covered in the four tables attached as an appendix to this article would suggest that, in terms of political and, most likely, economic historical importance, the impact of Old Rus would surely have been stronger on the British Isles than that of these islands on Old Rus. And, though the two geographic units the genealogy reflects are on the opposite sides of Europe, what can be shown is that a normally imperceptible, yet very real, relationship occurred which, as the centuries passed, increasingly changed history significantly in both directions.

ABSTRACT In this introduction to the issue Decentring Commemorations: Literary, Cultural, Historical and Political Celebrations across and beyond the British Isles, the authors give an overview of recent developments in the forms taken by official – sometimes politically motivated – commemorations and of the appearance of new – often more challenging and subversive – types of commemorations engaged in by social and cultural groups which had previously been marginalised or invisible. Drawing from fundamental academic work in the field of memory studies, and especially that of cultural memory, Sabiron and Tranmer wish to address a vast and yet under-reported issue in this sphere of study by adopting an innovative stand and taking a fundamentally transnational and transcultural approach to acts of commemorating.

ABSTRACT Ice coverage not only affects the climate and landscape of geographical regions but has impacted species composition, the fragmentation and isolation of populations, and the colonisation routes of species post-glaciation. Major advancements in generating genetic data and applying sophisticated analyses to accurately model the demographic and colonisation history of animal and plant species has allowed evolutionary biologists novel insights. Meanwhile, physical geographers have made major advancements in reconstructing glacial history. However, the information flow between the geographic and evolutionary fields on this topic remains limited; consequently, evolutionary studies on contemporary biodiversity and species colonisation tend to be vague about the role of glacial history, while evolutionary and biodiversity information is rarely leveraged when discussing historical glaciation. In this review, we bring together current knowledge on the changing patterns of ice coverage in the British Isles from the maximum extent of the British-Irish ice sheet (BIIS) ca. 27 ka through to the end of large-scale ice coverage at the start of the Holocene period ca. 11.5 ka. We do so to then highlight how glaciation affected species composition during this time period and the subsequent colonisation of temperate flora and fauna and the patterns of genetic variation seen in them.