Editing English Channel (section)

=== Route to Britain ===
[[File:North sea languages 900.png|right|thumb|The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century around the North Sea. {{legend|#ff0000|[[Old West Norse#Old West Norse|Old West Norse]]}}{{legend|#ff8040|[[Old East Norse]]}}{{legend|#00ff00|other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility}}]]

Remnants of a [[Mesolithic]] boatyard have been found on the [[Isle of Wight]]. [[Wheat]] was traded across the Channel about 8,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balter |first=Michael |date=26 February 2015 |title=DNA recovered from underwater British site may rewrite history of farming in Europe |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/dna-recovered-underwater-british-site-may-rewrite-history-farming-europe |journal=Science}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Larson |first=Greger |date=26 February 2015 |title=How wheat came to Britain |journal=Science |volume=347 |issue=6225 |pages=945–946 |bibcode=2015Sci...347..945L |doi=10.1126/science.aaa6113 |pmid=25722395 |s2cid=43627086}}</ref> "... Sophisticated social networks linked the [[Neolithic]] front in southern Europe to the [[Mesolithic]] peoples of northern Europe." The [[Ferriby Boats]], [[Hanson Log Boat]]s and the later [[Dover Bronze Age Boat]] could carry a substantial cross-Channel cargo.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Oliver |last2=Momber |first2=Garry |last3=Bates |first3=Richard |last4=Garwood |first4=Paul |date=27 February 2015 |title=Sedimentary DNA from a submerged site reveals wheat in the British Isles 8000 years ago |journal=Science |volume=347 |issue=6225 |pages=998–1001 |bibcode=2015Sci...347..998S |doi=10.1126/science.1261278 |pmid=25722413 |hdl-access=free |s2cid=1167101 |hdl=10454/9405}}</ref>

[[Diodorus Siculus]] and Pliny<ref>{{Cite web |title=History Compass |url=http://www.history-compass.com/images/store/HICO/chapters/523.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080307064122/http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/history/ |archive-date=7 March 2008 |access-date=27 April 2010 |publisher=History Compass}}</ref> both suggest trade between the rebel Celtic tribes of [[Armorica]] and [[Iron Age]] Britain flourished. In 55 BC [[Julius Caesar]] invaded, claiming that the Britons had aided the [[Veneti (Gaul)|Veneti]] against him the previous year. He was more successful in [[Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain|54 BC]], but Britain was not fully established as part of the [[Roman Empire]] until [[Aulus Plautius]]'s [[Roman conquest of Britain|43 AD invasion]]. A brisk and regular trade began between ports in Roman [[Gaul]] and those in Britain. This traffic continued until the [[end of Roman rule in Britain]] in 410 AD, after which the [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|early Anglo-Saxons]] left less clear historical records.

In the power vacuum left by the retreating Romans, the Germanic [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], [[Saxons]], and [[Jutes]] began the next great migration across the North Sea. Having already been used as mercenaries in Britain by the Romans, many people from these tribes crossed during the [[Migration Period]], conquering and perhaps displacing the native [[Celt]]ic populations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Germany The migration period |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-58084/Germany |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620052057/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-58084/Germany |archive-date=20 June 2008 |access-date=24 July 2007}}</ref>