How Long Ago Was Ancient?

[Salvianus]

Aside from a bicycle I once had, 'ancient' also suggests to me the orthodox Roman and before - Ancient Britons, for example usually including the Iron Age up to the traditional foundation of the English kingdoms - but now I also use it further into the early Historic Period. My special area of interest is the post-Roman transition which is straddled by the Picts, who I think of as 'ancient', up until their eclipse by the spreading Dal Riatan Scots in the 9thC AD.

Some other popular start dates to the Medieval period such as the start of the Roman Catholic revival in 598 AD reflect the more abundant evidence which is from South-Eastern England, the 'Celtic' fringes of the British Isles not being dominated until later. The Norman invasion of 1066 AD is another popular start for the Middle Ages and Malcolm submitted to William the conqueror six years after, but David I only began the serious Normanisation of Scotland after Henry I supported his accession in 1124 AD, paving the way for the Norman families, Balliol, Bruce and Stewart. The 'arrival of the Saxons' began well before the semi-mythical chronicle date of 449AD but the native British kingdom of the Gododdin in Lothian was not subdued by the Angles until the 7thC and British 'Strathclyde' was not overwhelmed by the Scots until the early 11thC. It just doesn't fit neatly.

The already senior Eastern Roman Emperor was virtually unaffected by the technical change of 476 AD, with Byzantines continuing to consider themselves Romans for centuries and I understand archaeology in northern Britain in particular is better served by the idea of a 'long iron age' which reflects the measure of continuity of a culture to the later first millennium AD. The Latin origin of the word as 'what was before', may fit the period before the effective creation of modern England in the early 10thC, and that of modern Scotland in the early 11thC, but I find myself thinking of these events as 'Early Medieval' rather than 'ancient', so I'll stick to the Picts.

[Edit: I might add that the motto I use as my signature 'antiquum obtinens', 'possessing/holding on to that which is ancient' illustrates why the ancient period, referred to as 'Antiquity', is particularly associated with Rome to 476 AD by classicists like Gibbon, 'Late Antiquity' being coined because the Western Empire hadn't been very Roman for a while by then, but many areas continued to be a bit Roman into the 6th-7thC, which is more true of Wales, Brittany and Cornwall.]

Diverting ramble for a Sunday, thanks