Historical Evidence
The late 9th- and early 10th-century writer Asser informed us that "there was in Mercia in fairly recent time a certain vigorous king called Offa, who terrified all the neighbouring kings and provinces around him, and who had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea" (Asser, Life of Alfred, p. .14). The last four words are vital: historians and archaeologists coming to the Dyke have had Asser in their hand, and have been looking for an earthwork 'from sea to sea'. Sir Cyril Fox completed the first major survey of the Dyke (Fox 1955), and, in agreement with Asser, theorized that the Dyke ran from the estuary of the River Dee in the north to the River Wye in the south (approximately 150 miles, or 240 km). He observed that the dyke was not continuous, and thought it was built only in areas where natural barriers did not already exist.
Frank Stenton, the eminent Anglo-Saxon historian of his day, accepted Fox's description, and wrote the introduction to Fox's account of the Dyke. Though Fox's work has now been to some extent revised, it remains a vital record of stretches of the Dyke that still existed between 1926 and 1928, when his three field surveys took place, but that are now destroyed.
Read more about this topic: Offa's Dyke
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or evidence:
“Some minds are as little logical or argumentative as nature; they can offer no reason or guess, but they exhibit the solemn and incontrovertible fact. If a historical question arises, they cause the tombs to be opened. Their silent and practical logic convinces the reason and the understanding at the same time. Of such sort is always the only pertinent question and the only satisfactory reply.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“You dont decide to build a church because you have money in the bank. You build because God says this is what I should do. Faith is the supplier of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”
—Jim Bakker (b. 1940)